The Grand Chamber of the EU’s General Court rejected, on Wednesday 27 July, RT France’s request to annul the acts of the EU Council adopted on 1 March, temporarily prohibiting it from broadcasting content following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine (see EUROPE 12922/9).
It took only 4 months and 19 days - a record - for the General Court to rule and reject the appeal of the French editorial staff of RT, which relied on four pleas of law alleging infringement of the rights of the defence, freedom of expression and information, the right to conduct a business and the principle of nondiscrimination on grounds of nationality as well as calling into question the EU Council’s competence to adopt such acts.
Specifically, the General Court held that the EU Council was fully entitled to take such action, given the purposes of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
Having swept aside this first argument, the General Court then recalled, with regard to the right of defence, that the EU authorities were not obliged to hear RT France before imposing a broadcasting ban, given the “ exceptional and extremely urgent” context in which the contested acts were adopted.
Furthermore, the Court held, in view of the important role of the broadcast media in society, that restrictive measures against a media outlet financed by Russia, in the context of a war of aggression launched by Russia, were not contrary to law and that “the nature and extent of the temporary prohibition at issue comply with the essential content of the freedom of expression and do not call that particular freedom into question”.
Finally, as regards the first of the last two pleas on which RT’s appeal was based, the General Court first concluded that the measures, “provided that they are temporary and reversible”, do not disproportionately affect the essential content of RT France’s freedom to conduct a business.
Furthermore, the General Court held that the alleged infringement of the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality could not fall within the scope of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and that, moreover, RT France had failed to identify any other category of persons who would have been treated more favourably when in a situation comparable to its own, “namely being under the direct or indirect control of the leadership of the Russian Federation”.
See the judgment (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/2qxf (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)