[Raphael_Amiard]

Not defending Russia in general, or in particular russian government. As a French person whose national medias are completely taken over by multinationals (source https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/PPA), not only the ban was a bit laughable in terms of banning propaganda, but also RT France's perspective and journalism was refreshing. It was presenting a skewed version of the world, but if you believe as I do that we won't attain information via objectivity, which is a nebulous concept anyway, but via plurality, RT France's disappearance is a net loss for the French media landscape, and I'm a bit alarmed at the black&whiteness of views I see here and in other places.

[dTal]

>if you believe as I do that we won't attain information via objectivity, which is a nebulous concept anyway, but via plurality, RT France's disappearance is a net loss for the French media landscape

I urge you to reconsider this philosophical standpoint, as it fails under adversarial conditions. It is possible for me to distort your view of the world - make it less accurate - even while telling you only true things. Selective truth can convey negative information. I merely need to have an idea of your pre-existing beliefs, and only correct some of them. If your terminal value is letting people be better informed, as defined by allowing them to make better predictions about the world, then permitting state propaganda outlets to tinker with their minds is a net loss.

Note that the Russian state does not share your viewpoint about free information flow. Can you really consider RT to be a good-faith participant in the public dialogue? If you're looking for a "fair" principle behind banning RT, I would argue that that is a good one - if you censor media, expect your media to be censored likewise.

[stjohnswarts]

Adding 5 propaganda sources to 1 actual new source doesn't improve anything it dilutes it. Plurality in that case only makes things worse. RT and Sputnik are garbage, they weren't great before but they're absolute garbage, rivaling "Infowars" in the USA. However, I think banning RT is bad as well and encourages politicians to ban other news sources that are reliable but opinionated.

[OrlandoHakim]

To play devil’s advocate, if you could share the name of any actual news sources you deem credible and then give me a minimum number of objectively verifiable examples of incorrect or misinformation you would need to see from them in order to discredit them as an actual news source, I would gladly take up the challenge. Genuine offer.

My point is not to claim that disreputable sources should be treated as legitimate news. Instead it is to point out that some of the most credible news media have been caught spreading fake news to manipulate public opinion when it was politically convenient.

Historically this has happened most often in the run up to or the early stages of war.

“In a time of war the first casualty is the truth” - some guy on the Internet