French authorities and stakeholders have held a debate on the implementation of sanctions against Russian propaganda TV channels and media companies.
Hosted at the French National Assembly, it was attended by representatives of the regulator Arcom, Eutelsat, Reporters without Borders (RSF) and the Denis Diderot Committee.
For the Denis Diderot Committee, an international network of academics, experts, professional of the audiovisual industry, the main conclusions were the following:
The Denis Diderot Committee notes that Eutelsat correctly applies the sanctions against Russian channels decided by the European Union and by Arcom, but nevertheless notes that RTR-Planeta, sanctioned for a year by the European Union, is still broadcast by the Eutelsat 70B satellite on behalf of the Armenian operator CARR. RTR-Planeta is the only foreign channel broadcast in the Armenian regions by CARR on its terrestrial network, probably from the Eutelsat signal.
Six months after the sanctions adopted on December 16 by the European Union against the two Russian groups VGTRK and National Media Group, the French authorities (Direction Générale du Trésor, Arcom) have given no instructions to the French operators (Eutelsat, FAI, platform operators, etc.) to implement these sanctions. According to the analyses of the Diderot Committee, these two groups broadcast around sixty channels which are still broadcast by Eutelsat. ISPs continue to provide access to websites, portals and other online content published by these two groups. Similarly, the site and channels of the Russian Armed Forces, sanctioned on December 16, are still accessible on the Internet. Written parliamentary questions from Mrs. Anne Genetet and Mr. Benjamin Haddad addressed to Mr. Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty on this implementation have still not received a response.
The Denis Diderot Committee welcomes the passages of the Resolution on foreign interference adopted on 1 June by the European Parliament which are inspired by its work: recital BZ notes that the Russian platforms Trikolor and NTV are still distributed by Eutelsat in the occupied and annexed territories of Ukraine; paragraph 111 calls for the consistent application of the sanctions adopted and calls for sanctions aimed at prohibiting the delivery of satellite broadcasting services to Russian companies.
The Denis Diderot Committee notes that no French or European regulation concerns the broadcasting by satellite operators of television channels to third countries. For countries outside Europe, Eutelsat relies on national regulations, even when they come from States that do not practice freedom of expression in its most basic forms.
The Denis Diderot Committee is delighted to see that the project for an alternative package of channels aimed at Russian-speaking populations, which it is preparing in collaboration with Reporters Without Borders, is obtaining more and more support. It calls on parliamentarians and the French government and the European Commission to officially support this project, and, if possible, to contribute to its financing.
