Kremlin Vows Tough Response to Western Media After EU Court Rejects RT France's Appeal

The European Union moved to ban major Russian news outlets broadcasting in Russian and in a number of other languages on the territory of Europe following the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine. The ban, which also affected websites and outlets' social media pages, was imposed under allegations of spreading fake news.

The Kremlin has slammed the EU court's decision to deny RT France's appeal to EU's broadcasting ban as "negative", with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying it has caused both concern and regret. Peskov added that Russia will not leave the decision unanswered.

"The attack on freedom of speech, on freedom of the media in European states, including France, is the process that causes our concern and regret. Of course, we are taking and will continue to take similar measures to pressure the Western media that operate in our country. We will also not allow them to work in our country, and we will not go easy on them here," the spokesman said.

Peskov added that by banning Russian broadcasters, Europe "tramples on the ideals" which they try to impose by force around the world.

The Grand Chamber of the European General Court earlier rejected RT France's appeal to overturn the suspension of the broadcaster's license in the EU.

"The Grand Chamber of the General Court dismisses RT France's application for annulment of acts of the Council [of the European Union], adopted following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, temporarily prohibiting that organisation from broadcasting content," the court said in a press release.

The court said it considered justified the EU's decision to infringe on freedom of speech in the case of RT France. The court said it considered justified the EU's decision to infringe on freedom of speech in the case of RT France. The ruling pointed out that the European Council had the right to suspend RT France's broadcasting if certain legal criteria were met. The court stated that these legal requirements were fulfilled, when the EU decided to ban the broadcaster across Europe.

RT France stated in the wake of the court's decision that it is planning to appeal it as well.

RT, Sputnik and a number of Russian TV channels which broadcast internationally were banned from the EU following the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. Their TV broadcasting was suspended, the websites blocked and big social media, such as Twitter, Facebook* and Instagram* were forced to limit access to the outlets' pages from the territory of the EU.

The European Council justified the restrictive measures, which limited Europeans' access to alternative news sources, under the pretext of claims that Russian media were spreading fake news, specifically about the special operation in Ukraine. In response to the infringement on the rights of the Russian media, Moscow had banned several of the European broadcasters, such as BBC and Deutsche Welle, from operating in Russia.

*Activity of Meta (Facebook and Instagram) is banned in Russia as extremist