EU sanctions against Russian media and its reporting of the war in Ukraine are still seen as insufficient by some European parliamentarians.
In a new letter sent to Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, 52 MEPs say that Eutelsat continues to broadcast over 300 channels for NTV Plus and Trikolor packages. The platforms are marketed in Russia, in the occupied territories of Ukraine and, in a “grey market” context, in the Baltic countries.
It also says that European satellite operators continue to make capacity available for previously sanctioned channels in third countries. Eutelsat continues to broadcast Rossiya 24 to Russia and Angola and to the occupied territories of Ukraine; RTR Planeta to Angola and Armenia. Meanwhile, SES continues to broadcast the RT News channel to South Africa, India and RT Español in Mexico.
The letter also notes that the media companies mentioned in the 9th sanctions package did not include the three main Russian partners of Eutelsat, namely Russian Satellite Communications Company, NTV-Plus and Tricolor.
It concludes by saying: “The fight against Russian propaganda must take place in many fronts. We therefore call for concrete steps to completely suspend broadcasting all Russian war propaganda channels, to ensure the full enforcement of all sanctions, to sanction these media companies that support Putin’s war machine and to prepare, as suggested by the VP Mrs Jourová, an alternative offer of pluralist and professional news channels to the Russian speaking population”.
The letter is dated January 18 and based on a note by the Denis Diderot Committee. According to the Committee, it waited before publishing the note public, for Eutelsat to make public its interpretation of the European sanctions adopted on December 16. The press release published by the operator on December 22 did not say a word about these sanctions.
On January 31, 2023, the Diderot Committee therefore decided to make this note public, hoping that the Treasury Department and Eutelsat will take it into account to implement the sanctions.
