Russian government-owned broadcaster RT has been fined £200,000 for programmes about the Salisbury poisoning and Syrian war.

Ofcom said the channel, formerly named Russia Today, had committed “serious failures” to comply with broadcasting rules on impartiality in seven news and current and affairs programmes.

The shows, aired between 17 March and 26 April 2018, included two hosted by former Respect MP George Galloway, three current affairs shows and two news bulletins.

“Taken together, these breaches represented serious and repeated failures of compliance with our rules,” a spokesperson for Ofcom said.

“We were particularly concerned by the frequency of RT’s rule-breaking over a relatively short period of time.

Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Show all 19 1 /19 Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Salisbury train station The two suspects charged in relation to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal at Salisbury train station at 16:11hrs on 03 March 2018 Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Suspects Suspects Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, Russian nationals, approximately 40 years old, who travelled on a Russian passport. It is likely that they were travelling under aliases and that these are not their real names Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Evidence Bottle and applicator recovered by police from Charlie Rowley’s address in Muggleton Road Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Evidence A counterfeit perfume box that was discovered by nerve agent victim Charlie Rowley, who later gave it, and the bottle inside, to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess Metropolitan Police/AFP/Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Rowley has previously said he felt lucky to be alive after giving a perfume bottle that contained the nerve agent Novichok to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, who later died Metropolitan Police/AFP/Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Suspeccts The CPS has issued European Arrest Warrants for the extradition of 'Boshirov' and 'Petrov' in connection with the Novichok poisoning attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March Metropolitan Police/PA Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – ‘Boshirov' at Gatwick airport Movements in detail - At 3pm on Friday, 2 March, the suspects arrived at Gatwick airport, having flown from Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2588 Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – ‘Petrov’ at Gatwick airport From the airport it is believed that they travelled by train into London, arriving at Victoria station at approximately 5.40pm Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Salisbury train station, 11:48hrs on 4 March 2018 They then travelled on London public transport to Waterloo station and were in the area between approximately 6pm and 7pm. They travelled to the City Stay Hotel in Bow Road, East London, where they stayed on Friday, 2 March, and Saturday, 3 March. On Saturday, 3 March, they left the hotel and took the underground to Waterloo station, arriving at approximately 11.45am, where they caught a train to Salisbury, arriving at approximately 2.25pm Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack City Stay Hotel in Bow Road Police officers stand outside the City Stay Hotel in Bow where on Sunday, 4 March, 'Boshirov' and 'Petrov' made the same journey from the hotel as they did the previous day, again using the underground from Bow to Waterloo station at approximately 8.05am, before continuing their journey by train to Salisbury Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Wilton Road, Salisbury, 11:58hrs on 4 March 2018 CCTV shows them in the vicinity of Mr Skripal’s house and we believe that they contaminated the front door with Novichok Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Fisherton Road CCTV image of both suspects on Fisherton Road, Salisbury at 13:05hrs on 4 March, 2018 Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Salisbury train station, 13:50hrs on 4 March 2018 They left Salisbury and returned to Waterloo Station, arriving at approximately 4.45pm and boarded the London Underground at approximately 6.30pm to London Heathrow Airport Metropolitan Police Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack CCTV – Heathrow airport security, 19:28hrs on 4 March 2018 From Heathrow Airport, they returned to Moscow on Aeroflot flight SU2585, departing at 10.30pm Metropolitan Police/PA Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Scene investigations The police investigation was carried out over 6 months. Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on March 4 in a critical condition on a bench outside the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury AFP Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, right, and his daughter Yulia Rex Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey who rushed to the aid of the Skripals was also taken to hospital in a serious condition after falling ill when attempting to help them PA Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Victims Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, died after falling ill when partner Charlie Rowley gave her a perfume bottle that contained the nerve agent Novichok Facebook/AFP/Getty Police release images of suspects in connection with Salisbury attack Scene investigations The home of Charlie Rowley in Muggleton Road, Amesbury, where he and Dawn Sturgess were exposed to the deadly nerve agent Novichok PA

“The programmes were mostly in relation to major matters of political controversy and current public policy – namely the UK government’s response to the events in Salisbury, and the Syrian conflict.”

Ofcom has fined RT £200,000 and directed it to broadcast a summary of its findings in the format and time of the watchdog’s choosing.

RT, which has not committed any further breaches, has launched a legal challenge against Ofcom’s decisions, and the sanctions will not be imposed until the outcome of legal proceedings.

A court granted RT permission for judicial review in June, and a full hearing is expected towards the end of the year.

A spokesperson for RT vowed to challenge the breach decisions and said the sanction was “very wrong” and disproportionate.

Ofcom said it would be defending its decisions in court, and added: “We consider this sanction to be appropriate and proportionate.

“It takes into account the additional steps that RT has taken to ensure its compliance since we launched our investigations.”

One episode of Mr Galloway’s Sputnik programme saw a co-presenter claim novichok was held at Britain’s Porton Down defence laboratory, while a former FSB secret service officer called the poisoning a “badly prepared provocation”.

Another saw Mr Galloway interview an “independent researcher” who presented the Salisbury poisoning as a plot to “punish Russia”.

Russian novichok suspects appear on TV to claim they were tourists visiting Salibury Cathedral

The breaches come as the UK accused Russia of proposing “contradictory and changing fantasies” to deny involvement in the attack on Sergei Skripal, amid heightened tensions over wars in Syria and Ukraine, alleged election interference and cyberattacks.

British security services identified two Russian GRU agents as the perpetrators of the attempted assassination, which caused the death of British mother Dawn Sturgess. RT broadcast an interview with the two suspects, in which they claimed to be salespeople who visited Salisbury for its “internationally famous” cathedral.

In March, researchers found that RT and Russian government-owned news website Sputnik worked as “damage control” for the Kremlin during the Salisbury attack and other incidents.

A report by the Policy Institute at King’s College London found that coverage of the Skripal poisoning “had all the features of a disinformation campaign and sought to sow confusion and uncertainty” through a “vast array of contradictory narratives and unchallenged conspiracy theories”.

Three episodes of the Crosstalk current affairs programme were found to be in breach, including one that broadcast claims of a “false flag chemical attack” in Syria, and accused the US of trying to “partition” the country and funding jihadis. Another episode of Crosstalk repeated claims that gas attacks on civilians had been “staged”.

An RT news bulletin on 18 March last year was found to have broken impartiality rules after claiming that militants were “preparing to stage chemical attacks in Syria to give the US a pretext to attack the government”. On 29 April, another RT news bulletin claimed that the Ukrainian government was “promoting the glorification of Nazism”.

A spokesperson for RT said: “While we continue to contest the very legitimacy of the breach decisions themselves, we find the scale of the proposed penalty to be particularly inappropriate and disproportionate per Ofcom’s own track record.

“It is notable that cases that involved hate speech and incitement to violence have been subject to substantially lower fines. It is astonishing that, in contrast, Ofcom sees RT’s programmes – which it thought should have presented more alternative points of view – as worthy of greater sanction than programmes containing hate speech and incitement to violence. We are duly considering further legal options.”

RT has an average audience of 3,400 viewers at any given point during the day, and an average weekly reach of 1 cent of UK adults, according to Ofcom figures. Owner TV Novosti has been disciplined for 15 breaches of the broadcasting code since 2012, mostly relating to Russia’s foreign policy in programmes about the wars in Ukraine and Syria.