Family in Germany faces prison sentence for broadcast "Russia 1" and RT on the Internet
A married couple living in Germany was suspected of organizing online broadcasts of Russian TV channels that are under EU sanctions. For showing “Russia 1” and RT, according to the law on foreign trade, the spouses face a year in prison.
A married couple living in Germany was suspected of organizing the illegal display of Russian TV channels on the Internet, the German Federal Customs Service reported. The suspects are a 37-year-old German and his 42-year-old wife with Ukrainian citizenship, living in Karlsruhe. Their names are not disclosed.
On September 26, the couple's home was searched. According to the news portal Tagesschau, the police seized a large amount of technical equipment for streaming, some “written evidence” and €40 thousand in cash. An Internet domain through which one could access Russian channels via IP-TV was also confiscated.
The Karlsruhe prosecutor's office accuses the couple of offering access to several Russian television channels, which have been sanctioned by the European Union on propaganda charges, since at least the beginning of 2022.
We are presumably talking about “Russia 1” and RT.
The Karlsruhe District Court ordered the seizure of €120 thousand as “confiscation of illegal proceeds.” If convicted of “commercial crimes,” ~the spouses face a prison sentence of at least one year under the Foreign Trade Law~.
Sanctions against “Russia Today”
Against the backdrop of the SVO, thousands of restrictive measures were introduced against Russia, including blocking the resources of the Sputnik agency and RT television channels. In March 2022, the permanent representatives of the European Union countries to the EU approved a ban on their broadcasting in all EU countries. This decision was explained by the “fight against disinformation.”
The pages of these media are unavailable on Google; they are blocked on YouTube and Meta platforms – social networks Facebook and Instagram.
In early September, the US Treasury imposed sanctions against the editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya media group and RT Margarita Simonyan, her deputies Anton Anisimov and Elizaveta Brodskaya, as well as a number of other employees of the channel.
In addition, the State Department has tightened the operating conditions of Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries, defining their status as “foreign missions.” As required by the Foreign Mission Act, they will be required to inform the agency about personnel and property working in the United States.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously stated that Moscow did not expect Western sanctions against journalists, athletes, and cultural representatives. The head of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutierrez, noted that the ban on Russian media in the European Union “has created a dangerous precedent that poses a threat to press freedom.”
