France and the EU have been asked to adopt similar sanctions to those already in place in the US in order to force channels off Russian pay-TV platforms.
According to the Denis Diderot Committee, “the US satellites companies Horizons and Intelsat have started to implement US sanctions against the channels of the Russian state company, VGTRK. Telekanal Zvezda has been taken off the air on Horizons 2H; Rossiya 1 and Rossiya 24 are off the air on Intelsat 15. Both satellites broadcast the Russian pay-TV Telekarta, a platform with 3 million subscribers. It considers the sanctions taken against VGTRK to be the first in the West forcing channels within Russia off the air.
Andre Lange, coordinator of the Denis Diderot Committee, said: “this action proves that sanctions can actually force changes within Russia’s media landscape, which is dominated by extreme propaganda.
“Eutelsat should also take heed of these sanctions. Critically they must allow for alternative TV channels to uplink on their 36E position”.
