The stream is off, the site is still running. At least on alternative domains that sometimes work, sometimes not. This is the current interim status in the back and forth about RT DE, the German offshoot of the Russian state broadcaster, which has been banned in the EU since the beginning of March and has been banned in Germany for some time – actually, one would have to add here. Because the station ignores bans where it can. “Even after the EU decision to ban RT DE from broadcasting content within the EU, there are ways to reach us,” writes the editors in a statement on their own behalf on their website. Anyone who thinks that the dispute over RT DE is history with the EU ban is wrong. It has even become more important.
The background: RT DE has been broadcasting linear programs in Germany since December without having applied for the necessary license. When the competent commission for approval and supervision (ZAK) of the state media authorities issued a ban at the beginning of February, RT DE defended itself at the administrative court in Berlin, where a decision on the matter is still pending. Then Russia started the war in Ukraine and the EU responded with a Europe-wide ban on the Russian state broadcasters RT and Sputnik and their subsidiaries. Since then, the broadcasters have been banned from all distribution channels, i.e. via cable, satellite, platforms, websites and apps. This, along with the blocking of channels on social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, was a heavy blow.
“The EU ban on all Russian state media is based on EU sanctions law,” says Eva Flecken from the media authority Berlin-Brandenburg, which is in a lengthy dispute with RT DE. The big difference between the two bans on RT DE , the German and the European, is this: “The ban on RT DE’s programming in Germany issued by the state media authorities is based on media law,” says Flecken. Because RT DE ignored the German ban and continued broadcasting, the MABB recently set a fine of 25,000 euros, which must be paid by March 16th.
The broadcasters know how to deal with the charge of propaganda – they simply turn it around.
The EU ban on RT and Sputnik, on the other hand, is considered an economic sanction and is therefore in line with measures such as the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT system. But can media companies really be treated like companies that produce financial or commercial goods? “The EU ban is politically understandable, but at least unusual in terms of media law,” says Tobias Schmid, head of the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, who is also part of the ERGA (European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services), the association of media regulators on EU Level.
The unusual EU ban decision has been in effect since March 2 and also means that EU countries that have already given RT broadcasters licenses must revoke them. National laws are not observed, but there is a time limit for the ban. That would be one of the weaknesses in that Decision of the EU Council. Because the time limit is formulated there in two different ways: the ban applies until the end of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, and here it gets more complicated until no more propaganda is broadcast. The latter will have to be laboriously defined and documented. Because the broadcasters know how to deal well with the accusation of propaganda, they simply turn it around when in doubt. “In any case, we have not yet checked the propaganda content of the station,” says Tobias Schmid. RT DE’s website says the EU is trying to “silence a critical, non-pro-Western source of information”.
The whole procedure must be tightened up, media regulators are demanding.
The fact that the ban is considered an economic sanction is a way of getting through the blocking of RT as quickly as it was done, which is not entirely unproblematic in terms of media law. The EU Commission actually has no direct access to the media, but it was Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who announced the ban on RT and Sputnik. The resolution also contains contradictory information as to whether the entire program of the broadcaster is actually banned or just linear programming. It is still unclear who has to enforce the ban in Germany. According to information from the MABB, this has been clarified between the federal and state governments since the announcement of the ban.
“The whole process should be sharpened in the future and brought into an even more orderly form,” says Tobias Schmid. According to Schmid, the background to the sanction is: “RT in English plays a major role in Russian neighboring countries, i.e. in the Baltic countries or in Poland.” In the current situation, the EU sees this as an immediate threat. It is probably against this background that the sharp words with which Ursula von der Leyen justified the ban must also be seen: “We are exposed to massive propaganda and disinformation about this despicable attack on a free and independent country. We will no longer allow these mouthpieces of the Kremlin to spread their toxic lies to justify Putin’s war and try to split our Union.”
Media regulators are not only taking action against Russian state broadcasters in Germany. Measures aimed at disinformation from RT and Sputnik have also been taken in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The German proceedings against RT DE are unique because of a peculiarity that exists in this country from historical experience. The media state treaty stipulates “remote from the state”, which also affects the financing. As a broadcaster financed by the Russian state, it would have had little chance of getting the broadcasting license that RT DE would have had to apply for.
The German dispute, which is based purely on formal criteria, could still turn out to be groundbreaking for the EU. Because other member states might be able to tackle broadcasters like RT better with a principle like being remote from the state than with terms like “propaganda” or “disinformation.”