European Union bans four media outlets for peddling Russian propaganda
The European Union has an‐ nounced a ban on four media out‐ lets accused of spreading proKremlin propaganda and "destabil‐ ising" Ukraine's neighbouring countries.
The four blacklisted outlets - Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta - are "under the permanent direct or indirect control" of Russia and have been "instrumental" in fostering support for its illegal invasion of Ukraine, the European Council said in a statement on Friday.
"The Russian Federation has en‐ gaged in a systematic, internation‐ al campaign of media and informa‐ tion manipulation (...) to justify and support its full-scale aggres‐ sion against Ukraine, and to en‐ hance its strategy of destabilisa‐ tion of its neighbouring countries, and of the EU and its member states," the statement reads.
It also added that, "In line with the
Charter of Fundamental Rights, the measures agreed will not prevent the targeted media outlets and their staff from carrying out activi‐ ties in the EU other than broad‐ casting, e.g. research and inter‐ views".
The decision was anticipated by the bloc's commissioner for values and transparency, Věra Jourová, on Wednesday when EU ambassadors greenlighted the move despite Rus‐ sia's Foreign Ministry spokes‐ woman Maria Zakharova warning that Moscow would retaliate against Western correspondents in Moscow.
Jourová also vowed to ban Russian funding of media outlets, NGOs and political parties in the EU. It comes just three weeks before some 370 million voters are sum‐ moned to the polls in European elections, a vote feared to be vul‐ nerable to Russian-backed disinfor‐ mation campaigns.
The bloc is on high alert for online Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining the integrity of the vote, with officials con‐ cerned the EU is deeply unpre‐ pared for new forms of foreign in‐ terference.
EU-listed media in the crosshairs
Three of the targeted outlets, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta, are all partly owned or con‐ trolled by the Russian state.
But Voice of Europe is a Dutch-lis‐ ted company with its official head‐ quarters in a small village in the province of North Brabant. The outlet is at the heart of an ongoing sprawling investigation into allega‐ tions lawmakers across Europe were paid to peddle the Kremlin's propaganda.
The news company claimed to pro‐ vide "uncensored news from Eu‐ rope and the world" and as re‐ cently as this March held one-onone interviews and debates with sitting MEPs broadcasted from the European Parliament in Brussels and in Strasbourg.
In late March, Czech authorities an‐ nounced it had busted a Russian influence operation conducted through Voice of Europe, alleging financial transactions had been made to elected officials in the Eu‐ ropean Parliament and in national parliaments.
According to Czech media citing of‐ ficials from intelligence services, the allegations involve politicians from Germany, France, Poland, Bel‐ gium, the Netherlands and Hun‐ gary.
On Thursday, German police opened an investigation into EU election hopeful Petr Bystron of the far-right Alternative for Ger‐ many (AfD) party, on allegations of receiving up to €20,000 from indi‐ viduals linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin to spread Kremlin propaganda.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said last month that the uncovered operation aimed to destabilise the whole of Europe, and revealed oth‐ er European countries had insti‐ gated investigations as the result of Czech efforts.
Belgium has confirmed it has opened a judicial investigation giv‐ en that members of the European Parliament, whose headquarters is in the Belgian capital of Brussels, are under suspicion.