ON AIR

Judge: Radio Station Broadcasting Sputnik Must Register as Foreign Agent

RM Broadcasting claimed it was only reselling radio airtime to Russian state media, rather than acting on behalf of the Russian government.

A U.S. judge ruled that a radio station that was broadcasting news shows of the Russian-funded Sputnik International has to register as a foreign agent, according to the The Hollywood Reporter. The D.C.-based radio station, RM Broadcasting, argued in a lawsuit against the Department of Justice that it did not have to declare itself as a foreign agent because it was only reselling radio airtime to Rossiya Segodnya, Russia’s news agency. However, U.S. District Court Judge Robin Rosenberg sided with the Justice Department and concluded that the station’s sale of airtime required them to “broadcast/transmit Radio Programs.” In its transmission of news broadcasts from a declared foreign agent, the station’s actions satisfied “the definition of an agent of a foreign principal by agreeing, though the Services Agreement, to act in a manner by which it qualifies as an agent of a foreign principal,” the judge ruled.