Europe 1 with AFP 10:39 a.m., March 3, 2022

The South African satellite broadcaster Multichoice announced on Thursday the suspension of the broadcast of Russian media RT on its pan-African service DStv service, following sanctions imposed by the European Union.

"Russia Today (channel 407) will no longer be broadcast on the DStv platform until further notice," a statement from Multichoice said.

The ban on the Russia Today channel is starting to spread outside the EU.

Since this Thursday, the two Russian media RT and Sputnik have become inaccessible and have disappeared from social networks throughout the European Union, after the various sanctions decided against Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine. . 

Multichoice, a South African broadcaster, has also decided to suspend the Russian channel, accused of propaganda and distortion of facts.

"The sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union have led the global distributor to cease the delivery of satellite service to all providers," he explained.

RT suspended for nearly 20 million African subscribers

Africans who wanted to watch RT on Thursday therefore found a simple message on their screen explaining that "the channel you are trying to watch is not currently broadcast".

Multichoice's DStv service, through which the RT channel has been broadcast until now, covers the whole of sub-Saharan Africa and has some 20 million paying subscribers.

Another South African platform, TelkomONE, has also suspended RT's broadcast. 

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Russia Today had already been banned in Germany last month.

In the official journal of the European Union, it can be read that these prohibition measures should be maintained until the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Added to this is another condition: the Russian Federation and its associated media must cease carrying out propaganda actions against the European Union and its Member States.