Kravchuk: PACE calls to sanction Russian media and declare the ROC a propaganda tool

Ukrainian delegation member Yevhenia Kravchuk at a PACE meeting, October 1, 2024. Photo by Yevhenia Kravchuk on Facebook

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted the resolution "Propaganda and Freedom of Information in Europe", calling to sanction Russian propagandists and state media and to recognize the Russian Orthodox Church as a tool of Russian influence and propaganda.

The PACE resolution was passed today, October 1, by 117 votes, deputy head of the Humanitarian and Information Policy Committee and Ukrainian PACE delegation member Yevhenia Kravchuk reported on Facebook.

According to Kravchuk, the Ukrainian delegation managed to strengthen the resolution with their amendments. These included the following points:

• introducing targeted sanctions against Russian media outlets such as RT and their affiliates, as their activities violate journalistic ethics and should be considered a threat to the national security of the member states;
• introducing targeted sanctions against propagandists such as Margarita Simonyan, Olga Skabeeva, Vladimir Soloviev and others, unless this has already been done;
• recognizing that the Kremlin regime uses the Russian Orthodox Church as a tool of Russian influence and propaganda.

"The resolution affirmed that the Council of Europe member states must defend themselves against all forms of propaganda, including war propaganda, incitement to genocide and other international crimes, hatred, terrorism and discrimination, and they must be able to counter and neutralize propaganda that contradicts fundamental values of the European Convention on Human Rights," Kravchuk said.

The Assembly also provided some recommendations to Member States:

• to create proper independent media oversight regulators;
• to take action to promote equal access to information for all, including women, youth, and socially vulnerable groups;
• to promote media and information literacy and invest in media and civic education programs to develop critical thinking;
• to ensure that public service broadcasters are independent and have sufficient resources to carry out their mission in the public interest;
• to boost the transparency of media ownership and funding sources.

On September 4, 2024, the US accused Russia of attempting to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election through Kremlin-run media outlets and online platforms that are designed to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda, in particular RT (Russia Today).

The US has charged two RT employees with money laundering for a scheme to hire a US company to create online content to influence the 2024 presidential election.