DISINFO: RT France was never denounced for spreading fake-news
SUMMARY
Following successive waves of new European sanctions, in April 2023, the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance managed to shut down RT France by freezing the channel's bank accounts, plunging nearly a hundred employees and fifty journalists into unemployment. Despite this, they had never been penalised for any "fake news," despite the accusations from supporters and ministers of Emmanuel Macron.
RESPONSE
This is manifestly false, both in relation to what RT France's production included and in relation to the legal situation.
The simple fact is that RT France did not abide by the legal framework for its operation.
Content: The EUvsDisinfo database contains many disinformation cases dedicated to material published by RT France.
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about sanctions, falsely alleging discrimination against Russian outlets in France.
RT, Sputnik, and a myriad other Russian state-owned or -aligned outlets have been exposed over the last decade as instruments of spreading disinformation and pro-Kremlin propaganda rather than working accoridng to international journalistic standards (see for example here, here, or here. For an extensive list of a wide range of studies, articles and reports relating to the spread of pro-Kremlin disinformation, see Studies and Reports section on EUvsDisinfo.
Here on the EUvsDisinfo database many cases are dedicated to material published by RT France.
Legal situation: RT France was notorious in the French legal landscape for its strategic lawsuits against public participation (so-called SLAPPs), initiating numerous costly legal actions against individuals who publicly shared their observations about the channel.
The assertion that “RT France was never accused of spreading fake news,” although factually incorrect, was systematically employed as an intimidation strategy. Researchers or Twitter users pointing out that this claim was far from reality were sued and discouraged by the prospect of expensive defamation trials.
One such trial against Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Director of the Institute for Strategic Research, ended with a decision clearly establishing that the French civil servant was right and listed examples of disinformation spread by RT.
The statements that were sued unsuccessfully by the Russian channel included that:
RT frequently invent facts, falsify documents, translations or interview. The report contains numerous examples of these manipulations, one of the most recent of which was a report on Syria in which RT falsified the translation of a statement given by a witness from Ghouta. They made him say that the chemical attack was simulated, while in reality he was talking about famine...; That we attended American universities has nothing to do with the fact RT falsified the translation of a report on Syria, to use this example alone; In reacting to our report, RT and Sputnik have further illustrated our point. They have relied once again on the methods of amplification and distortion that we denounce; Our report, like any work, certainly contains some errors and we are prepared to discuss them, but in practicing rational argumentation, using demonstrations and sources, rather than relying on baseless accusations, or even information manipulation.
The French Audio-Visual Authority also issued a warning to RT France on 28 June 2018 about a translation that was not related to the images shown in a story about a chemical attack in Ghouta region, Syria “such a fact characterises a failure to comply with the requirement of rigor in the presentation and processing of information set out by the aforementioned stipulations of article 2-3-6 of the RT FRANCE service agreement”.
Read also related stories such as: RT and Sputnik were shut down because they told the Western audiences the truth, or The EU calls any information it doesn’t like disinformation, or RT was banned in France without any legal basis or evidence, or People who say that RT is not independent from the Kremlin are wrong and should be condemned by justice, or RT and Sputnik repeatedly being accused without evidence.