The European Court of Justice published a decision on July 2 in the case of C-67/25 Traugott Ickeroth. According to the court’s statement, three German citizens face criminal prosecution for distributing videos of the Russia Today Germany TV channel on an online website.
The reason for this is that the European Union’s legislation prohibits “operators” from distributing the content of this TV channel due to the sanctions imposed on RT in 2022.
The German court handling the case had doubts about whether these citizens could be held accountable, as access to “the website in question could be accessed free of charge and was financed solely by donations from its users.”
The European Court of Justice resolved this issue by determining that an “operator” in this context is “any person responsible, directly or indirectly, for providing access to prohibited content, including in the context of non-profit activities or when a website is funded through voluntary contributions from third parties.” This means that distributing Russia Today videos in the EU can lead to criminal prosecution.
“Only that interpretation makes it possible, as envisaged by the EU legislature, to prevent the broadcasting of the propaganda put in place by the Russian Federation and, consequently, to protect public order and security in the European Union,” the European Court of Justice stated.
