The EU is reportedly planning to target Russian media channels with the upcoming ninth sanctions package, freezing the assets of ANO TV-Novosti, RT’s parent company, and revoking licenses from those few outlets which still hold them within the bloc. RT spoke on the new planned broadside against Russian media with Sonja van den Ende, an independent Dutch journalist, who believes the ongoing crisis has become merely a pretext to intensify the years-long crackdown on the freedom of speech in the West.
“This is what the Western countries are doing since the start of the special military operation, even before that. Even before the Syrian war, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya,” van den Ende said.
But now it intensified a lot, and we see every day new things coming out. They clearly want to control the media, this is what they do already, and everything that is said in favor of Russia or just neutral about Russia is straight away banned everywhere.
Germany has repeatedly targeted RT and its German-language division RT DE in particular. The latest initiative in the field was floated this week by MP Andrea Lindholz, a CDU/CSU parliamentary group chair, who proposed to set up a special reporting office to tackle “Russian disinformation.”
The MP claimed the alleged “danger of Russian propaganda and disinformation in Germany should not be underestimated,” particularly given the economic troubles “when everything is getting more expensive, there is a risk that people will become more receptive to pro-Russian fakes.”https://rumble.com/embed/v1y1umq/?pub=4
The questionable initiative comes as Germany is already experiencing mass protests, van den Ende noted, expressing hopes that the country’s citizens will only “protest more.”
“The next part, the freedom of speech is gone. What is left then? They have no life. They can’t pay their bills anymore, they can’t say what they want. It’s a total dictatorship,” she said.
They preach democracy and freedom, and they do the opposite.
The main goal of such activities is maintaining control over the media narrative, and the Western establishment simply fears that Russian outlets would breach it, the journalist believes.
“The threat they imagine is maybe that some truth will come out, that they are telling not what is really going on,” van den Ende said.
RTC bans Russian state-controlled TV channels RT, RT France from Canadian airwaves
[As if the CBC isn’t state propaganda, the taxpayer-funded voice of the Ottawa elite. Trudeau and the CRTC’s decision to deny access to Russia Today denies Canadians the opportunity to access a different point of view. Trudeau, the arch control freak, who desperately wants to limit what Canadians can say on the Internet, complains: “There is a significant amount of disinformation circulating from Russia, including on social media, and we all need to keep calling it out.” Perhaps, there is and in Ukrainian media too. Remember to Snake Island Hoax — the 13 brave Ukrainian soldiers who answered a Russian gunboats demand to surrender with “fuck you” and were all blown up. Truth: They surrendered and are all alive. Canada’s Fake News media is also notorious for its lies and suppression. Canadians should have the right to access foreign media and judge for themselves. — Paul Fromm]
Broadcasters Rogers, Bell and Shaw removed RT from their networks in February
Peter Zimonjic · CBC News · Posted: Mar 16, 2022 1:24 PM ET | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
A placard protesting Russian broadcaster RT is displayed at a rally in Toronto against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month. (Chris Helgren/Reuters)
Canada’s telecommunications regulator has removed the state-controlled Russian television network RT from Canadian airwaves.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced Wednesday afternoon that it was removing RT and RT France from the list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution in Canada.
The decision means broadcasters in Canada are no longer legally permitted to carry the channel.
The multilingual 24-hour news channel launched in 2005, when it was known as Russia Today, and now appears in more than 100 countries, according to its website.
Funded by the Russian government, the channel has long been described by critics as a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin.
“RT’s programming is not consistent with the standards against which Canadian services are measured nor the policy objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act,” the CRTC said in its decision.WATCH | Canada bans Russian state-controlled RT:
Canada bans Russian state media from airwaves
5 hours agoDuration 2:06Canada’s telecommunications regulator, the CRTC, has removed the state-controlled Russian television network RT from Canadian airwaves. 2:06
“The CRTC is also concerned with programming from a foreign country that seeks to undermine the sovereignty of another country, demean Canadians of a particular ethnic background and undermine democratic institutions within Canada.”
The decision is not a surprise. On March 3, the CRTC published a “preliminary view” that suggested it was inclined to ban the channel.
“The Commission is of the preliminary view that RT’s programming may not be consistent with the Commissions’s broadcasting regulations, in particular, the abuse comment provisions such as those set out in Section 5 of the Television Broadcasting Regulations 1987,” the CRTC said on its website.
Under Section 5, abuse is defined as words or images that “expose an individual or a group or class of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or mental or physical disability.”
Broadcasters pull RT’s plug
The CRTC said in its decision Wednesday that non-Canadian news services should be held to the same standards as Canadian news outlets.
“Freedom of speech and a range of perspectives are a necessary part of our democracy. However, it is a privilege and not a right to be broadcast in Canada,” said CRTC CEO Ian Scott in a statement.
Jason Woycheshyn, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Bar Association, was one of the individuals who made a submission to the CRTC. He asked the CRTC to ban RT, arguing that there is “no need [for] or interest” in Russian propaganda in Canada.
“That’s the basis upon which we are requesting that the CRTC ban all access, whether it be on the airwaves, television, radio or internet, to Russia Today or any other state-sponsored propaganda media Russia is currently promoting,” he said.
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state-funded RT television network, right, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin’s first deputy chief of staff, Alexei Gromov, left, attend an exhibition marking RT’s 10th anniversary in Moscow on Dec. 10, 2015. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo/Associated Press)
On Feb. 27, Rogers, Bell and Shaw announced that they would no longer carry RT.
“Customers who subscribe to RT as a pick and pay service will receive a credit in the next billing cycle,” Shaw said in a tweet at the time.
The following day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that while broadcasters had started removing RT from their lineups, he would ask the CRTC to review the broadcaster’s licence to ensure that any decision to ban the channel goes through an arm’s-length process.
“There is a significant amount of disinformation circulating from Russia, including on social media, and we all need to keep calling it out,” Trudeau said at the time.
The day after Trudeau’s announcement, Regina-based Access Communications announced that it too was removing RT from its AccessNexTV Stream lineup.
