France

[FR] Arcom gives Eutelsat formal notice to stop broadcasting two Russian channels

IRIS 2025-5:1/16

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

In a decision dated 19 March 2025, the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (French audiovisual regulator – ARCOM) served formal notice on Eutelsat to stop broadcasting two Russian channels, STS and Kanal 5. These channels are among the 28 Russian media undertakings controlled by the Russian company JSC National Media Group, which has seen its financial resources frozen pursuant to Article 2 of the EU Council Regulation of 17 March 2014, resulting in a ban on transmission of these channels. In so doing, ARCOM is, for the first time, implementing the new powers conferred on it by the Loi visant à sécuriser et réguler l'espace numérique (Law aiming to secure and regulate the digital space) of 21 May 2024. This law added the following to Article 42 of the Law of 30 September 1986: “Publishers and distributors of audiovisual communication services, satellite network operators and the technical service providers they use may be given formal notice to comply with the obligations imposed by provisions adopted on the basis of Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union relating to the prohibition of broadcasting of audiovisual communication service content”.

Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, ARCOM has, in application of the Law of 30 September 1986, stopped the transmission of Russian channels NTV Mir, Rossiya 1, Perviy Kanal and NTV, whose programmes devoted to the conflict contained incitement to hatred and violence, as well as breaches of honest reporting standards.

ARCOM also indicated that it had ensured that the operators concerned complied with current European legislation, which included the possibility of sanctions against Russian media. On this basis, it had banned transmission of the RT France channel as long ago as 2 March 2022.