Ban on Putin's home broadcaster RT: EU takes action - "Toxic and harmful"

Created: 02/27/2022, 20:13

By: Florian Naumann

Even the foreign ministers Annalena Baerbock and Sergey Lavrov argued about the broadcaster RT - now the EU is taking action.

© dpa/Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service

For years, Russian media such as RT have been spreading propaganda and disinformation in Germany and other countries.

The EU Commission no longer wants to put up with this.

Brussels – The Ukraine conflict * also has consequences for Russian media: in the fight against Kremlin propaganda * the EU wants to ban the Russian state media RT and Sputnik.

They would then no longer be able to spread lies to justify Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine.

Attempts to split the EU would also be prevented, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday in Brussels.

A conflict over RT arose weeks ago between Germany and Russia - Moscow reacted at the time by stopping broadcasting of the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), President of the European Commission, announced that the EU wants to take action against the spread of Russian propaganda.

© Kenzo Tribouillard/Pool AFP/AP/dpa

Von der Leyen said they were working on tools to ban "toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe."

She spoke of a one-off step.

The ban should also affect the subsidiaries of RT and Sputnik.

Ukraine conflict: RT criticized as Russia's propaganda tool

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell emphasized that disinformation has been fought since 2015.

“Today we are taking a decisive step to turn off the Russian information manipulation.” However, neither von der Leyen nor Borrell gave any details about the time frame or the action taken against both media.

RT is repeatedly criticized in the West as a propaganda tool of the Kremlin.

The main accusation is that the broadcaster is spreading conspiracy stories and disinformation on behalf of the Russian state.

RT denies that.

The station has several foreign-language programs in its portfolio.

RT: The Ukraine conflict has consequences - the Austrian Telekom subsidiary has already acted beforehand

The Austrian branch of Deutsche Telekom has already removed RT from the program.

"The distribution of the channel RT "Russia Today" will be suspended on all Magenta TV platforms until further notice," Magenta Telekom announced on Sunday in Vienna.

Media Minister Susanne Raab welcomed the decision.

"RT spreads Russian war propaganda in Europe and also in Austria," said the conservative ÖVP politician.

Until Sunday, RT's English-language news channel was part of the offer of Magenta, one of the largest providers of cable TV in Austria.

Although Magenta is a neutral platform, the decision was ultimately made to take the step, company circles said to the dpa.

There had also been talks with the government about this, but no political pressure had been exerted.

Youtube had recently imposed restrictions on RT and Co.

The German media regulators recently banned RT from broadcasting the German-language TV program.

They cited the lack of a broadcasting license for Germany as the reason.

RT DE launched its German-language program in mid-December via several distribution channels.

In Germany, you need a broadcasting license for nationwide TV programs.

The topic even became a point of contention between Foreign Ministers Annalena Baerbock and Sergey Lavrov*.

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