Moscow promised on Wednesday to hinder the “work of Western media” on its territory, in retaliation for the confirmation by European justice of the suspension of the Russian news channel RT France, decided by the EU after the invasion of Ukraine.
“We are going to take similar pressure measures targeting Western media working in our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters after the publication of an EU court ruling. judging legal the prohibition of diffusion of RT France.
“We are not going to let them work in our country either,” he added. These media should not expect “any flexible approach” from the Russian authorities, he warned, denouncing an “attack on freedom of expression and freedom of the press in European countries, including in France “.
Since the start of the war on February 24, Moscow has already blocked several Western media sites (BBC, Die Welt, RFI, Deutsche Welle, etc.) and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
In May, Russia closed the office of Canadian broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada after RT was banned from broadcasting in Canada.
At the same time, media have suspended or stopped their operations in Russia for fear of reprisals and because of laws that punish heavy prison sentences for allegedly false information about the Russian army.
In its decision, against which RT France has announced that it is appealing, the EU court explains in particular that the “temporary ban” on broadcasting does “not call into question” the freedom of expression “as such”, unlike so claimed the Russian state media.
“The confirmation by the Court of this general ban and the uncertain term unfortunately shows that the judicial power of the European Union cannot or does not want to oppose political power”, reacted Xenia Fedorova, president of RT France, in a statement.
The French Secretary of State for Europe, Laurence Boone, welcomed the judgment of the Court of Justice. “We will not tolerate any misinformation: Russia is the aggressor, not the other way around,” she tweeted.
Accused of being instruments of “disinformation” of the Kremlin, the media Sputnik and RT (including its French-language version RT France) were banned from broadcasting in the EU from March 2, on television and on the Internet, following to an agreement between the Twenty-Seven shortly after the start of the war.
Avoid “propaganda”
The French situation is particular because, since the suspension of RT in Germany at the end of 2021, France was the only EU Member State to host an RT subsidiary on its soil.
In its judgment on Wednesday, the court found that “RT France’s limitations on freedom of expression […] are proportionate,” with the EU seeking to avoid “propaganda” for “Ukrainian military aggression” in “broadcasts broadcast on television and on the Internet by a media fully funded by the Russian state” .
These measures, “as long as they are temporary and reversible, do not disproportionately affect the essential content of RT France’s freedom of enterprise”.
“Despite this censorship, RT France will continue to bring different perspectives on the news wherever it is broadcast,” assured its president.
The news channel, which employs 131 people, continues to broadcast in French and to publish articles on its site, which is still accessible via a virtual private network (VPN), a service allowing you to browse the web bypassing the blockage.
The broadcasting of RT France, owned by an association financed by Moscow, ANO-TV Novosti, and its freedom of expression falls under the control of the French audiovisual regulator, Arcom, believes its lawyer, Emmanuel Piwnica, also quoted in the press release. .
But the court judges that this does not detract from the competences of the Council, a body representing the 27 member countries of the EU, capable of taking measures to “react to the serious threat to peace at the borders of Europe and to the violation of international law”.
In France, the Sputnik News news agency entered into liquidation proceedings in May, its 27 employees having been dismissed in the process.