Is banning RT and Sputnik likely to do more harm than good?

• According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, RT and Sputnik are guilty of peddling "lies to justify Putin's war" in Ukraine.

• But will this decision to ban these two media have a real impact on the rest of the conflict?

RT and Sputnik are in the sights of Europe.

The European Union has decided to ban these "Russian state media" to prevent them from spreading their "lies" about Moscow's war in Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Sunday.

For his part, Jean-Yves Le Drian announced a set of new sanctions "both financial and economic" to "put an end to the disinformation disseminated in Europe by Russian propaganda organs".

In the process, RT and Sputnik were blocked this Tuesday throughout Europe on YouTube.

Can we really consider these media as propaganda organs and above all what effect will this decision have on the rest of the conflict?

“I am skeptical about the effect of RT France on opinion in France”

Talking about propaganda in this context is a mistake, points out Carole Grimaud Potter, geopolitical analyst, specialist in Russia and post-Soviet spaces: "We are not in a register of propaganda, because if you take the term etymologically, it means you can't escape, you are like in Soviet times when the loudspeakers were broadcasting messages all day long, you were immersed in this bath and had no access to other sources of information.

In France, you are free to read

,

, or RT.

»

Even RT France's coverage of the presidential election gave space to all the candidates and not just to the far right.

“They followed a cautious line”, points out the researcher who has worked on the concrete influence of Russia through media such as RT.

“So far, we have never managed to prove that there was a Russian influence.

I believe the decision to point the finger at RT was mostly political.”

And Carole Grimaud Potter is not alone in questioning the supposed influence of these media on the population.

“I am skeptical about the effect of RT France on opinion in France, even if they had a moment of glory with the yellow vests, confirms Maxime Audinet, author of

(INA editions), in an interview with AFP.

TV audiences are minimal.

“We lose our temper and get carried away”

If RT and Sputnik aren't really propaganda outlets, what's the point of banning them?

One can hardly count on its deterrent effect in the current war.

It's more of a breakup.

We cut off any possibility of offering a speaking platform to Russia in France or in Europe.

“We continue the war on another level, analyzes Carole Grimaud Potter.

First the economic sanctions, then the media sanctions.

It's a hot reaction that has not been thought through, the consequences have not been weighed enough.

We lose our temper and get carried away”.

And there will probably be a boomerang effect for France.

“There are going to be retaliatory measures on the Russian side which can be quite heavy: this will certainly result in the banning of the broadcasting of France 24 and RFI in Russia, anticipates Maxime Audinet with AFP.

This would mean that journalists from France 24 and RFI will be expelled”.

And Russia could target other French journalists.

“You have to be aware that we are liberal democracies with a pluralist media model, this is not the case with Russia,” he continues.

France thus risks losing valuable sources of information in Russia.

“This decision is entering the field of an illiberal vision of the media.

France must be able to offer freedom of expression, freedom of ideas.

To deprive us of this is also to take the French hostage, deplores Carole Grimaud Potter.

We infantilize the population by saying: "You are not able to tell the difference between a media like

and RT".

It remains to be seen how this decision will be implemented in the country.

France is the only EU Member State to host an RT subsidiary on its soil and to have granted it a broadcasting license.

We will have to clarify, from a legal point of view, how we ban a French media that employs more than 100 French journalists.

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