(new: European media authorities, German media authorities, von der Leyen.)
BRSSEL (dpa-AFX) – The distribution of the Russian state media RT and Sputnik in the EU is now prohibited. The measure came into force on Wednesday with the publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It must be implemented in each individual EU country.
“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures,” said EU Commission Vice Vera Jourova on Tuesday evening after a meeting with representatives of the Group of European Regulators for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA). “We all stand for freedom of speech, but it must not be misused to spread war propaganda. The Kremlin has weaponized information.”
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that words are crucial in times of war. “We are witnessing massive propaganda and disinformation about this egregious attack on a free and independent country.” However, they will not allow those loyal to the Kremlin to “spread their poisonous lies to justify Putin’s war or sow the seeds of division in our Union.”
The current sanction affects all distribution channels of RT and Sputnik in the EU, such as via cable, satellite or the Internet. RT offshoots in German or French, for example, are also affected. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has been subject to EU sanctions since last week. These relate to an entry ban, and possible assets in the EU were also frozen.
The RT and Sputnik journalists themselves should not be prevented from doing their jobs, EU officials stressed. The sanctions had been worked out very carefully, it said, also in view of concerns about possible cuts in press freedom.
The sanctions against RT and Sputnik should be temporary and only last “until the aggression against Ukraine has ended and the Russian Federation and its media have stopped their propaganda actions against the Union and its member states,” said an EU official.
The EU media regulators, who are represented in ERGA, emphasized on Wednesday that they were united and committed to contributing to the rapid implementation of the measures by all those involved.
Facebook group Meta and video app Tiktok have already restricted access to RT and Sputnik content in the EU.
Independent of the EU decision, German media regulators have threatened a fine of 25,000 euros against RT’s German-language live program, as the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority announced on Tuesday to the German Press Agency. The regulators want to ensure that RT DE Productions GmbH, based in Berlin, discontinues the live TV program of RT DE.
The reason is that the media authorities issued a broadcasting ban at the beginning of February because there was no broadcasting license for the program in Germany. A license is basically a prerequisite for offering a radio program in this country. The German-language live program RT DE has been broadcast since December.
The European representative of the German media authorities, Tobias Schmid, said: “The economic sanctions of the European Commission support our consistent media law action against RT DE and should provide an answer to the fact that the program is still being distributed despite the lack of a license.” The case also shows that the state distance principle of the media state treaty valid in Germany is a far-sighted idea. He hopes “that the EU will adopt this approach for the whole of Europe. This would also provide a stable legal basis for such far-reaching measures in the future.”/wim/rin/DP/men