Not so long ago, these columns (2nd quarter of 2025) reviewed the book by Xenia Fedorova, the former head of Russia Today France, the Russian news channel that officials from all twenty-seven member states of the European Union banned from broadcast—in unison, behind closed doors, and in secret sessions without official minutes. She titled her book Banned. She couldn’t have put it better.

Banned last year, banned again this July 2026—this time by a French government decree ordering her expulsion from the country, as well as the freezing of her bank assets—an extrajudicial measure that has become standard practice against “dissidents” at odds with anti-Russian Euro-propaganda. See the case of Jacques Baud and others, discussed on this page.

The journalist’s greatest offense? Having sought “to undermine the confidence of European citizens, and in particular French citizens, in their institutions, and to instil doubt regarding the validity of the support given to Ukraine”. Doubt that “undermines the fundamental interests of the State”, no less. Notably, while the muzzling of Russian news channels was met with deafening radio silence from the journalistic community and defenders of free speech, the order to silence Xenia Fedorova—from the newspaper Le Monde to Libération and Reporters Without Borders—was greeted with cheers. Down with the wicked, black sheep! Fedorova—let’s silence her!

This highly unusual lack of solidarity is likely linked to the fact that, following the closure of Russia Today France, the journalist found a way to continue her work through the media outlets of the unsavory press magnate Bolloré (radical right), CNews and Europe 1, whose audience, in this case, amounts to an affront—an affront that the deportation order thus sought to counter. The deeper meaning of this was aptly summarized by Xenia Fedorova: “Those who celebrate this decision lack foresight, because today it’s me, and tomorrow it will be anyone who dares to speak out against the prevailing orthodoxy.”

She could not have put it better. In late July, the European Court of Justice gave the green light to a German court in Saarbrücken to proceed with charges against three citizens accused of “criminal conspiracy” (no less!) on the grounds that they had posted clips from Russia Today on their website. This amounts to the European Union giving the hackneyed term “disinformation” a new meaning: to dis-inform = to eradicate information. Everyone cannot help but be deeply concerned by this.