DOJ Wants RM Broadcasting to Register as Foreign Agent
RM Broadcasting should register as a foreign agent and may not be accurately representing its control over the content on WZHF(AM) Capitol Heights, Maryland, by Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya, said DOJ in filings (in Pacer) in Florida federal…
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court Monday. WZHF broadcasts content provided by Russian radio service Sputnik. Justice has called for RM to register as a foreign agent since 2017, and RM sued DOJ over the matter in October. RM is a broker of broadcast time on WZHF and doesn’t have any control over content, said Nicole Waid, RM’s attorney with FisherBroyles, in an interview. “The allegation that RM Broadcasting engages in the ‘business of leasing broadcast airtime’ is vague and may not fully characterize the nature of RM Broadcasting's relationship” with FCC licensees, DOJ said. FCC records show WZHF is licensed to Way Broadcasting, and Waid said Way is an entirely separate company from RM. Wednesday, Way, DOJ and Rossiya Segedonya didn’t comment. “The relationship between RM Broadcasting and Rossiya Segodnya is strictly an arms-length commercial business transaction” and doesn’t involve “an agency relationship,” RM said in its complaint. Reston Translator, a broadcaster retransmitting Sputnik, reluctantly registered as a foreign agent in 2017 after similar DOJ demands (see [Ref:1712040054]). Registering as a foreign agent would allow DOJ more scrutiny of RM’s activities and make it harder for the company to do business, Waid said: “There are ramifications to registering as a foreign agent.”