russian media ‘still accessible’ in EU despite sanctions

This is stated in a report published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a London-based think tank, according to European Pravda, citing Euractiv.

After russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU authorities banned Kremlin-controlled media from broadcasting in the bloc, including on the Internet, in order to counter ‘disinformation.’

But more than three years have passed, and ‘sanctioned media outlets are still active and accessible’ in member states, the report says.

‘russian state media continue to maintain a strong online presence, posing a constant challenge to Western democracies,’ the report said, adding that blocking by internet providers is ‘largely ineffective.’

EU sanctions banned RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and Sputnik, as well as other state-controlled media outlets accused of ‘information warfare.’

The ISD report covered Germany, France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, testing the three largest internet providers in each of these countries.

Twenty-six sanctioned media outlets were identified and an attempt was made to view 58 related domains. In 76% of the tests, providers were unable to block access.

EU member states are responsible for ensuring that internet providers block access.

However, the ISD report criticises the European Commission for its ‘failure’ to maintain a ‘definitive list of different domain iterations’ – or website addresses – associated with each media outlet.

The report says this has left countries and internet providers ‘without the guidance necessary for effective and targeted implementation.’

‘The problem is that when they impose sanctions on russian state media, they mention the media outlets that are subject to sanctions – i.e. Russia Today, Sputnik, etc. – but they do not specify which domain is subject to these sanctions,’ said report author Pablo Maristan de las Casas.

‘If the European Commission listed the various domains known to be associated with these organisations, it would make it much easier for EU member states and internet providers in those member states to enforce these blocks,’ he added.

The report calls on the EC to publish a ‘constantly updated and publicly available list’ and include it in sanctions packages and on its online sanctions dashboard.

According to the author of the report, law enforcement needs to be more flexible as russia tries to circumvent sanctions. ‘Some media outlets, such as RT, use so-called mirror domains,’ where they ‘simply copy the content of the blocked site to a new URL – a new link – to circumvent these sanctions,’ he said.

The report notes that Slovakia, whose Prime Minister Robert Fico is known for his pro-russian stance, showed the worst results in enforcing sanctions, failing to block a single website.

Poland ranked second, while France and Germany were the most effective overall. Most of the domains subject to sanctions were not very popular in the bloc, with fewer than 1,000 views per month, but Germany, with its large russian diaspora, was an exception: three domains, including RT, had more than 100,000 visitors per month from there.

Source: European Pravda