French presidential candidate blacklists RT: report

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign has refused press accreditation to Russia’s international television outlet, according to a Monday report, calling RT pro-Moscow “propaganda.”

“It is not just an outlet like the others,” one source inside the Macron campaign told The Daily Beast. “It is a propaganda organ. Therefore we have decided not to give it accreditation.”

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, told the Beast that it hopes the center-left candidate changes course and allows it access.

“RT has not received an official reason for its exclusion from the Macron presidential campaign HQ,” it said in a statement.

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“We hope that his team will see fit to afford the courtesy of accreditation to RT shortly, and not attempt to curtail journalism, and manipulate the media, by selecting who can and can’t report on his campaign.”

Macron and Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front advanced this weekend from a field of 11 presidential candidates to a May 7 runoff.

France’s presidential election is widely regarded as a test of the populist wave that has swept through Western governments since last year.

Macron, who served as the economy minister to current French President Francois Hollande, supports remaining in the European Union.

Le Pen, who has frequently been compared to President Trump, could instigate a referendum on leaving the EU should she win next month.

Both candidates have called for increased security measures in the face of France’s continued struggles against terrorism. But Le Pen has also pledged to crack down on immigration and called for mosque closures as the nation has remained under a state of emergency since the Paris attacks in 2015.