On 17 May, the EU Council decided to suspend the broadcasting of four more propaganda media outlets in the EU.
According to the Council's website, the list includes Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestiya and Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
"These media outlets are under the constant direct or indirect control of the leadership of the Russian Federation and have played an important role in promoting and supporting Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, as well as in destabilising neighbouring countries," the press release says.
However, in accordance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the EU Council's decision will not prevent these media outlets and their employees from carrying out other activities in the EU. We are talking about research and interviews.
The EU believes that Russia is conducting a systematic international campaign to manipulate the media and information, seriously distorting facts in order to justify and support its aggression against Ukraine, as well as to strengthen its strategy to destabilise neighbouring countries and the EU.
"In particular, propaganda, information manipulation and interference have been repeatedly and consistently directed against the Ukrainian state and its authorities, Ukrainian citizens, as well as European political parties, especially during election periods, as well as against civil society, asylum seekers, Russian ethnic minorities, gender minorities and the functioning of democratic institutions in the EU and its Member States," the Council of the European Union said.