Reporters Without Borders launches news platform to counter Russian propaganda

Reporters Without Borders has announced it will launch a digital platform aimed at providing Russian speakers with access to independent news.

An employee wipes a TV screen in a shop in Moscow, on 17 April 2014, during a broadcast of President Vladimir Putin's address to the nation. © AFP / ALEXANDER NEMENOV

Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday it had signed a contract with global satellite operator Eutelsat to launch a digital platform called Svoboda ("Freedom" in Russian).

The platform, which is expected to be launched in the coming weeks, will feature "news programmes to offer a comprehensive and objective view of global events", said the Paris-based media watchdog, known by its French acronym RSF.

After invading Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has intensified a crackdown on dissenting voices and ramped up propaganda. All main independent media outlets have been shut down or suspended their operations in Russia.

Christophe Deloire, RSF secretary-general, called the new project "an ambitious initiative that intends to reverse the logic of propaganda".

"It will allow independent media outlets to broadcast toward human beings that do not enjoy their right to information," Deloire said in a statement.

"This is not just about defending press freedom, this is about creating the concrete conditions for the circulation of free and independent news and information."

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European satellites relay Russian channels

Last year RSF asked the French broadcasting regulator to order Eutelsat to stop transmitting the signals of Russia media on its satellites. The operator helped broadcast three Russian TV channels to Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic countries that RSF called "spearheads of the Kremlin's war propaganda".

After a legal battle, the regulator gave Eutelsat formal notice to stop carrying the channels in December 2022.

The Denis Diderot Committee, a collective of media professionals that campaigned with RSF to stop Russia broadcasting via Eutelsat's satellites, welcomed the operator's move to help counter disinformation by transmitting the new platform.

"However, much remains to be done to prevent the satellite capacities of European satellite operators from being used by media controlled by non-democratic regimes or organisations," commented André Lange, the committee's co-founder.

(with AFP)