How a French satellite operator helps keep Russia?s TV propaganda online

Some, like CNN, stopped broadcasting after new media censorship laws came into effect; others, like Euronews, were forced off the air by the Kremlin.If Eutelsat removed the two Russian television companies from its satellite, the Diderot Committee says, it could replace them with a raft of free-to-air channels.“It could create a great deal of creativity,” Phillipoff says. We're gonna move to, you know, 118°.” Recalibrating all of those satellite dishes could take months, if not years, and millions of dollars.But Eutelsat has been cool to the idea of breaking up with Moscow.Speaking to Danish news outlet Radar early this month, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke insisted that Eutelsat would remain “neutral.” She told Radar that the decision of whether or not to exclude the Russian television providers would be one left to the authorities.In a statement to WIRED, Eutelsat reiterated that “commitment to neutrality.” With respect to any possible suspension for those Russian stations, the company iterated that it is “guided by sanctions and the decisions of its competent regulatory bodies.” The company points to RT France, which it stopped transmitting after a March 1 regulatory decision.“If the European authorities impose new sanctions against Russian channels, we will stop their broadcast,” the company said. In May, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the EU Parliament they would ban three new broadcasters “in whatever shape or form, be it on cable, via satellite, on the internet, or via smartphone apps.”Politico has reported that those three broadcasters are Russian-language news networks that reach Europe, with some help from Eutelsat’s satellites.Eutelsat told WIRED, “We are aware of the European Union's intention to sanction three Russian channels, two of which are broadcast on our satellites, and we are ready to immediately cease broadcasting them as soon as the corresponding European regulation is published.”The United States recently slapped sanctions on three Russian-language TV stations, including NTV (the flagship station of provider NTV+), after concluding that they are “spreading disinformation to bolster Putin’s war.” Those sanctions are likely to have an impact on their foreign revenue, but not on their Russian operations.Going after the satellites themselves would be a hugely disruptive escalation. “Although the primary target is believed to have been the Ukrainian military, other customers were affected, including personal and commercial internet users,” the UK’s National Cyber Center said in a joint statement with the US and EU.Earlier this week, just ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations—which offered Moscow a prime opportunity to project strength amidst its stalled war—the State Special Communications Service of Ukraine announced that “[television] broadcast from the Russian satellite to the occupied Ukrainian regions was unexpectedly turned off.”As WIRED has reported, Ukraine is aggressively deploying American- and European-provided Starlink terminals, while Russian satellite communications remain troubled.European cooperation isn’t limited to Eutelsat’s satellite television.