Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced on Thursday that it had appealed to the Council of State against Arcom’s decision not to intervene with the French satellite operator Eutelsat in connection with the transmission, in Russia, of three Russian channels accused of “propaganda of war”.
In early September, RSF seized Arcom, the French audiovisual regulator, asking it to formally notify Eutelsat to stop broadcasting the Rossiya 1, Perviy Kanal and NTV channels in Russia, Ukraine and the Baltics.
In question, the dissemination of “comments that are governed by French law, incitement to hatred and violence against the Ukrainian population (…) including incitement to genocide.”
A quarter of Russian households affected
This referral concerned the distribution to Russia and Ukraine occupied by Eutelsat of the “Russian packages NTV+ and Trikolor”, broadcasters of the three channels to 15 million subscribers, that is, a quarter of Russian households.
But in a decision handed down at the end of September, Arcom declared itself incompetent, considering that a formal notification from Eutelsat was not “based on law and facts”, according to its response to RSF, consulted by AFP.
In a request submitted to the Council of State – the highest French administrative court – on November 17, 2022 and consulted by AFP, RSF requests the annulment of this “refusal” to act. To this is added “a summary suspension, requesting the administrative judge to recognize the urgency of suspending Arcom’s decision, and to declare it illegal,” according to a press release from the NGO.
Arcom’s argument “invalid” according to RSF
To justify its decision, Arcom invokes in particular the “very limited” number of European citizens who have access to the specific encrypted channels. An “invalid” argument, according to RSF, since these means are “accessible in the Baltic countries, within” the European Union.
The NGO also criticizes the regulator for having erroneously evacuated a criterion that made it competent, that of “the use of a satellite capacity that falls within the scope of France.” Contacted by AFP, Arcom estimated that “it will be up to the Council of State to decide” on this issue, different from the measures already taken on French territory by Eutelsat.
At the request of Arcom, the operator thus ceased, in August, the broadcast in Europe of the Russian channel NTV Mir, after having stopped that of RT in March, at the request of the EU. RSF denounced Eutelsat’s activity in Russia in July and asked the operator and the French state – its main shareholder through Bpifrance – to stop their “contribution to Russian propaganda”. Eutelsat then invoked a “principle of neutrality” and the responsibility of “national regulators”.
Source: BFM TV
