A group of Dutch activists has filed a collective complaint with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg over the EU's ban on Sputnik and RT, a representative of the Bits of Freedom human rights organisation, Rejo Zenger, said.
Earlier this week, the Dutch Association of Journalists released a statement saying that together with several other organisations, it plans to challenge the EU's ban on Sputnik and RT.
According to Zenger, the decision to block Russian media was "political" and not reviewed by "independent judges".
Broadcasting and distribution of content of the Sputnik news agency and RT TV channel was banned in the EU in early March as part of anti-Russian sanctions over Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly commented on such restrictions, saying that Moscow did not expect the West to impose sanctions on journalists, athletes, and cultural representatives. The head of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, Valery Fadeev, sent an appeal to the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, Teresa Ribeiro, asking her to take measures to comply with norms concerning freedom of the press due to the repression of Russian-language publications.