Rossiya Segodnya MIA stand and Sputnik radio studio at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — 2021. Archival photoMOSCOW, Mar 13French MEP Helene Laporte, in an address to the European Commission, raised the issue of the legal basis for blocking the RT channel and the Sputnik agency in the European Union, RT reports. is based on the decision of the Council of the EU of September 18, 2014. «Thus, the EU did not base its decision on the shortcomings identified in these media,» RT quotes Laporte as saying. It is specified that she asked what legal basis under the sanctions regime makes it possible to impose a ban on the broadcasts of RT and Sputnik, «which are subject to regulation in individual Member States.» «Has the European Commission assessed what proportionate response measures Russia can take, including a ban on broadcasting in the country of France 24 and Radio France Internationale, as well as the expulsion of their journalists?» — RT brings Laporte's question to the European Commission. Earlier, the permanent representatives of the EU countries approved a ban on broadcasting in the EU of Sputnik and RT; this decision was condemned in the unions of journalists of Greece and many foreign media. Earlier, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the blocking of the work of a number of Russian media in the EU as one of the sanctions measures in connection with the special operation carried out by Russia to demilitarize Ukraine. Von der Leyen said the ban will include RT, Sputnik and their subsidiaries. The TikTok and Instagram accounts of these Russian media outlets have already stopped working in the EU, Meta will generally restrict access to them in the EU.Radio Sputnik will start broadcasting on the Ekho Moskvy frequency Later it became known that Sputnik and RT's TikTok accounts were also blocked in the EU countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Moscow did not expect the West to impose sanctions on journalists, athletes, and cultural figures. The head of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, Valery Fadeev, sent an appeal to the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro, and urged her to take measures to comply with the norms regarding freedom of the press, due to the harassment of Russian-language publications. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine early Thursday morning , 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, the civilian population is not in danger. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no question of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized. The situation with the Russian media in the West has become more and more difficult in recent years. In November 2016, the European Parliament adopted a resolution stating the need to counter the Russian media, with Sputnik and RT named as the main threats in the document. A number of Western politicians, including US senators and congressmen, as well as the President of France, accused Sputnik and RT of interfering in the elections in the US and France, but did not provide any evidence. Official Russian representatives called such statements unsubstantiated.
