Last week, Cableman reported that the Internet Protection Society began collecting signatures to ban Russian state channels in Europe, in particular Perviy (Channel One), NTV, RTR channels, including Rossiya 24, and the Russia Today channel, already banned in most European countries.

And several days ago, the head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, made a statement about the planned ban on broadcasting of three major Russian state channels as part of the next package of sanctions.

The head of the EC did not specify the particular channels, but stressed that she considers them "mouthpieces of propaganda." They will be prohibited from broadcasting in any form: via satellite, via cable TV, online or through mobile applications.

A month earlier, sanctions were imposed on the channel Russia Today and Sputnik.

In other news, the UK yesterday imposed sanctions against the Russia Television and Radio (RTR) and other Russian media and journalists. This is stated in a statement published on the website of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the country.

The sanctions were imposed against the Inforos news agency, the SouthFront website, and the Strategic Culture Foundation analytical portal, among others.

The Office pays special attention to employees of state television channels and some war correspondents. The list includes: RTR war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny; military correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda Alexander Kots; special correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda Dmitry Steshin; Brian McDonald, head of the English editorial at RT;
journalist and presenter of RTR Naila Asker-Zade; host of Perviy Mikhail Leontiev.

In addition, the sanctions list included the chairman of the board of directors of Perviy, Maxim Oreshkin, the head of Otkritie, Mikhail Zadornov, and the chairman of the board of Sovcombank, Dmitry Gusev.

The sanctions suppose an asset freeze and a ban on entry into the UK. To date, the country has imposed sanctions against more than 1.6 thousand individuals and legal entities.

The British Foreign Office also noted that Russian companies are prohibited from using the services of British consulting, accounting and PR organizations. As emphasized in the department, they account for 10% of Russian imports.

On March 31, the UK imposed sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya news agency, the RT TV channel and its CEO Alexey Nikolov, the head of the Sputnik agency Anton Anisimov and the host of RTR Sergey Brilev, as well as the head of Gazprom Media Alexander Zharov.

Prior to this, sanctions were imposed on journalists and heads of media holdings, including the CEO of Perviy Konstantin Ernst, the editor-in-chief of RT, Sputnik and Russia Today Margarita Simonyan, the host of the International Sawmill show on NTV Tigran Keosayan, the host of the 60 minutes on Rossiya 1 Olga Skabeeva.