Propaganda facilitation brings in €76 million a year
French satellite Eutelsat is acting as a Russian war propaganda proxy, according to Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) and press freedom campaigner the Diderot Committee, which have called on it to stop, in the name of the French people. With the French State as its main shareholder, “France cannot allow such a situation to continue,” said RSF.
Eutelsat runs the satellite transmission of TV channels and radio stations with the French state as the main shareholder with 20%, via the French public investment bank (BPI). Two of its satellites provide the main source of information for 30% of the Russian population, broadcasting TV channels such as Rossiya 1, Perviy 1 or NTV. “Spearheads of the Russian war propaganda machine,” as RSF described them.
These media constantly gloss over war crimes, incite violence and provoke hatred, legitimising the aggression towards Ukraine and the crimes of the Russian army. This contribution to Russian propaganda is proving particularly lucrative for Eutelsat, for whom Russia is its second largest customer, said RSF. The satellite company’s Russian activity represented 6.3% of its turnover in 2020-2021, generating some €76 million.
“Eutelsat cannot legitimately contribute to the Kremlin’s propaganda by providing means of dissemination, and reap dividends from disinformation and censorship,” says Christophe Deloire, the secretary General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “The French authorities must put an end to this situation. They have the means to act and must implement them without delay.”
RSF said that since Eutelsat is governed by French law, with the main shareholder being the French state, that means that in effect France is collaborating with the Russian war propaganda machine and its censorship in Russia of international news media.
David Bertolotti, director of institutional and international affairs at Eutelsat, explained the company’s position. “Eutelsat does not set itself up as a judge of the quality or legality of the programmes[being broadcast],” said Bertolotti, “It is the responsibility of national regulators to issue injunctions where appropriate. And if there are sanctions, we apply them.”
Abandoning total neutrality toward content would bring pressure from all sides, “without an argument to resist,” Bertolotti argued. It would also “put at risk the freedom and pluralism of information.”
At The Denis Diderot Committee, co-ordinator André Lange, said the responsibility and honour of France, the reference shareholder of Eutelsat are at stake. “[We] are engaged in this unjustifiable collaboration with the Russian apparatus of war propaganda and genocide.”
The activities of Eutelsat are defined by the amended Eutelsat IGO Convention, which oversees its activities by reference to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT). The ECTT is the first international treaty creating a legal framework for the free circulation of transfrontier television programmes in Europe, through minimum common rules, in fields such as respect for freedom of expression and information, respect for the dignity of the human person, the prohibition of incitement to violence or racial hatred in the audiovisual media, media pluralism and fair presentation of facts.
The channels broadcast in Russia by Eutelsat do not meet these obligations. RSF therefore calls on the French authorities to convene an assembly of the states parties to the Eutelsat convention. “The point here is not to call on the political authorities to ban Russian propaganda media, which only independent administrative authorities could legitimately do, but to obtain from Eutelsat respect for an international convention that imposes respect for the right to freedom of expression and information, to contribute to the right to reliable, pluralistic and independent information, and to guarantee the consistency of the French position. Eutelsat would be better off broadcasting independent Russian channels,” said RSF spokesman Christophe Deloire.
France and Russia are ranked 26th and 155th respectively in the World Press Freedom Index compiled by RSF for 2022. The UK is ranked in 24th place, after Timor, Namibia and Costa Rica.