Poland

[PL] UKE has announced an EU ban on the broadcasting and distribution of Russian TV channels

IRIS 2023-3:1/11

Weronika Różańska

Czyżewscy Law Firm

According to an announcement on the UKE (Office of Electronic Communications) website, a ban on four Russian TV channels (NTV Mir, Rossiya 1, REN TV, Pervyi Kanal) became effective in Poland on 2 February 2023.

The above-mentioned ban results from Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/180 of 27 January 2023 implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2474 amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine published on 30 January 2023. As a result, service providers are obliged to block access to information distributed by the banned Russian TV channels which covers the distribution of content by any means, such as cable TV, satellite TV, Internet TV, online platforms or video-sharing applications, whether new or pre-installed.

It is worth mentioning that since 1 March 2022, according to Council Regulation (EU) 2022/350 of 1 March 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia's actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine it has been forbidden to broadcast two Russian channels - Russia Today and Sputnik.

At the same time the President of UKE indicated that the implementation of this obligation falls within the exceptions set out in Article 3(3) of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council, with regard to access to the open internet. Article 3(3)(a) states that the use of non-standard traffic management measures is possible to, inter alia, ensure compliance with Union legislative acts.


References

  • Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 laying down measures concerning open internet access and amending Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services and Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union
  • https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32015R2120


  • Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/180 of 27 January 2023 implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2474 amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine
  • https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/180/oj


This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.