French TV regulator urges Eutelsat to stop broadcasting three Russian channels

PARIS (Reuters) -French broadcasting authority Arcom on Wednesday urged satellite company Eutelsat to stop carrying three Russian TV channels, whose coverage of the war in Ukraine included “repeated incitement to hatred and violence and numerous shortcomings in honesty of information.”

Arcom said it told Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Rossiya 1, Perviy Kanal and NTV. A Eutelsat spokeswoman said the French company would comply and stop broadcasting the three channels.

France’s top administrative court last week ordered Arcom to review its initial decision that it did not have the power to order Eutelsat to stop broadcasting the channels, in a case brought by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Arcom said it had discovered the channels “were broadcast not only in Russia, but also in the Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia”.

“Given that, contrary to Russia, Ukraine has signed and ratified the European Convention on cross-border television, as France has done, Arcom now has the legal basis to request that Eutelsat stop broacasting these three channels,” Arcom said.

Earlier this year the European Union banned several Russian state-owned broadcasters as part of a sanctions package in response to the war, preventing them from distributing their content on cable, via satellite, on the internet or via smartphone apps.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, editing by Tassilo Hummel and Alexandra Hudson)