Abstract

In the aftermath of the Russian armed attack on Ukraine occurred in February 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted several restrictive measures against Russian journalists, writers and filmmakers in the framework of the EU common foreign and security policy. These sanctions may affect their freedom of expression, which is enshrined both in Art. 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Despite the similarities of such provisions, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights accord a different standard of review in their respective proceedings to the claims involving the alleged breach of the freedom of expression. By examining the keycase Kiselev v. Council of 2017, this article focuses on the need to shape a common definition of ‘propaganda’ in order to harmonize the two divergent standards of review.