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British media watchdog Ofcom has no claims to RT coverage of Boeing crash in Ukraine

Following the air disaster the Ofcom studied several complaints lodged by a few TV audiences against the RT coverage of the tragedy on July 17-22

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. The British media watchdog Ofcom - an independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, has found no violations of the standards of coverage of the MH-17 Malaysian Boeing crash in Ukraine last July, the press service of Russia Today television said on Thursday.

Following the air disaster the Ofcom studied several complaints lodged by a few TV audiences against the RT coverage of the tragedy on July 17-22, which the authors of the complaints described as "biased."

The Ofcom asked RT to provide 30-hour long videos covering the air disaster. Having scrutinized all the videos Ofcom released a conclusion that all the accusations were groundless; all the inquiries opened into the case have been dropped, the RT press service said.

"For many months the western media have been airing rumors about an allegedly biased coverage by RT of the horrible air disaster. We cherish strong hopes that now the same media agencies will release fair and true reports, saying that the Ofcom - the strictest media regulator, having thoroughly studied the RT footage of the catastrophe, has found absolutely no grounds for such accusations. RT hails the decision of the British media regulator," RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said.

The Ofcom also dismissed as groundless other complaints that during a live broadcast from the scene of the tragedy in a "breaking news" regime RT showed the bodies of the killed passengers, which might have hurt the viewers' feelings. Ofcom conducted a separate investigation and ruled that RT took thorough measures to narrow any possible harm, in particular, by means of using vague techniques when demonstrating all the tragic scenes, which were shown in permissible air time," the press service said. Besides, the demonstration was accompanied by voice warnings that scenes hard to see might possibly be demonstrated, it said.