Media in War: An Overview of the European Restrictions on Russian Media

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2023 8(3), 1235-1245 | European Forum Insight of 24 January 2024 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction: Russian propaganda in state and online media: disinformation machinery in full swing. - I.1. Conceptual premise: a brief comparison between propaganda and disinformation. - I.2. Disinformation machinery in full swing: Russian propaganda in state and online media. - II. The RT case. - II.1. Disinformation machinery in full swing – Russian propaganda in state and online media. - II.2. RT France’s appeal. - III. “For the first time in modern history, Western European governments are banning media”: polemics with the banning of RT and Sputnik. - IV. Quo vadis propaganda regulation?. | (Abstract) The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has triggered a multitude of media regulation challenges within the EU. With the Russian state propaganda machinery continuing to work in full swing, it has become increasingly critical for the EU to regulate media content to prevent the dissemination of disinformation, harmful and misleading information and state propaganda. This Insight seeks to explore the EU’s reaction to the Russian coverage of the war through the example of the RT case. The study aims to provide a theoretical background to Russian propaganda as a premise for the case study. The focus of the Insight is the examination of the RT suspension and the RT France case via the broader understanding of “propaganda” restrictions using the case law of the CJEU and the ECtHR. The study also aims to introduce a scholarly critical viewpoint with regard to imposing stringent restrictive measures against a media outlet and the effectivity thereof. The main argument of the Insight is that the nuanced and contextual understanding of media in war is not only a legal necessity but an effective societal tool, too, especially in the Russo-Ukrainian war.