On September 26, the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine revoked broadcasting licenses of five companies of the 112 Ukraine holding, effectively banning the work of the eponymous television channel.
According to the Gromadske portal, reading out the draft decision, a member of the National Council, Sergei Kostinsky, said that 112 Ukraine systematically violated the terms of the license and received several warnings. The National Council refused to renew the license due to the fact that the channel has not eliminated the violation since 2014.
The regulator’s decision states that the licenses for regional digital broadcasting in the DVB-T2 standard were not extended to the Leader TV, Partner TV, Ariadna TV, and New TV Format TV companies. In 2011, these companies received broadcasting licenses for almost the entire territory of Ukraine, with the exception of Odessa Oblast, and in 2013 they entered the holding 112 Ukraine.
The National Council, motivating its decision, said that these companies should work as regional media, and not relay the channel "112 Ukraine", which already has a license for nationwide satellite broadcasting. At the same time, Oleg Chernykh, a member of the National Council, added that after the decision was made, the channel could continue broadcasting only on cable networks, the Internet and in satellite TV packages.
Channel 112 Ukraine called the decision of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting to revoke its license illegal and said that such actions were a gross attack on freedom of speech. In addition, the statement of the channel indicated that the National Council itself is not a legitimate body.
“The actions of the National Council are illegal. A number of members of the National Council expired in July 2019, which the Verkhovna Rada de facto recognized, and by taking any decisions they exceed their authority, and the National Council itself is not competent. We perceive the decision of the National Council as an illegal decision of an illegitimate authority, ”the channel said on its website.
The general producer of 112 Ukraine, Artem Marchevsky, commenting on the regulator’s decision, said that the channel intends to challenge the regulator’s decision in court and seek support from international organizations.
According to Bohdan Bezpalko, a member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia, there has been no freedom of speech in Ukraine for a long time.
“Stripping the media field continues. The 112 Ukraine TV channel suffered because it allowed a certain degree of criticism of the government, which seeks to make the media completely controlled, ”the political analyst explained in a conversation with RT.
The office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reacted to the decision of the National Council and stated that freedom of speech is "an integral part of a democratic state," so they monitor the development of the situation around the channel.
“At the same time, all broadcasters must adhere to the law and the terms of the license,” the president’s office on the Telegram channel said in a statement. At the same time, Zelensky’s office said that soon the composition of the National Broadcasting Council would be updated.
According to the interlocutor of RT, the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Batkivshchyna party, Zelensky is following in the footsteps of Poroshenko.
“Zelensky has already realized how dangerous independent media can be. Every day, journalists have more and more uncomfortable questions for the new president of the country, so the information field will obviously be cleared. In a couple of years, Poroshenko’s team may be more liberal than Zelensky’s entourage. Given that there is no mutual assistance among the Ukrainian media, it will not be so difficult to deal with the opposition, ”said the deputy.
The RT source in the Golos party believes that Zelensky’s team, allowing the National Council to make such decisions, “tests” the reaction of society and its Western partners.
“You can always say to Western partners that this is pro-Russian agitation, and not independent television channels, websites or magazines. Apparently, they decided to adopt “successful experience” from the previous team and expect that it will work, ”said the deputy.
According to Oleg Nemensky, an expert at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, the Zelensky administration’s policy regarding the opposition press has been tougher than the policy of the previous government.
“The new government continues almost everything in Poroshenko’s policy, because it feels much stronger due to the fact that it has concentrated the main power institutions in its hands and still has a rather high rating - accordingly, it can afford much more, including an attack on Media, ”said the expert in an interview with RT.
Systematic harassment
This is not the first time that 112 Ukraine TV channel has been subjected to pressure from both the authorities and radical elements within the country. So, on the night of July 13, unknown people fired from a grenade launcher into the building of the TV channel, located on Degtyarevskaya street in the Shevchenkovsky district of Kiev.
- The building of the 112 Ukraine TV channel after shelling from a grenade launcher on July 13, 2019
- Reuters
- © Gleb Garanich
As a result of the incident, no one was hurt, the police instituted criminal proceedings under the article “Terrorist Act”, but none of the attackers was detained.
The shelling of the TV channel building from a grenade launcher occurred after 112 Ukraine announced the screening of the film The Untold History of Ukraine. At the same time, Yury Lutsenko, who served as the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, “threatened the TV channel with responsibility” for showing the tape, and the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting announced the start of a TV channel check.
In the film, which was produced by the famous American cinematographer Oliver Stone, the speakers were Russian President Vladimir Putin and head of the political council of the Ukrainian party, Opposition Platform - For Life, Viktor Medvedchuk. They commented on the incident in the Kerch Strait when three Ukrainian warships illegally entered the territorial waters of Russia and were detained.
The attack on the channel was condemned by the OSCE and the US Embassy, calling the situation unacceptable and urging to investigate the incident.
Despite the fact that the SBU took over the investigation, in the months that have passed since the attack, no progress has been made. In early September, the head of European diplomacy Federica Mogherini reminded the Ukrainian authorities that the EU expects them to investigate what happened.
Old "freedom" under the new government
“112 Ukraine” is not the only TV channel pursued by the country's authorities. In July of this year, Attorney General Yuriy Lutsenko announced that a criminal case had been opened against the NEWSONE television channel under an article on the financing of terrorism.
According to him, the Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine received evidence that “the officials of the Cyprus offshore companies NEWSONE and one of the Russian banks that service the state defense order” are the same persons. This was the reason for initiating proceedings against the beneficial owners of the channel.
- Law enforcement officers during a protest outside the office of NewsOne TV channel against the bridge between the Russian channel "Russia 1" and the Ukrainian channel NewsOne, July 8, 2019
- RIA News
On September 5, the National Broadcasting Council of Ukraine decided to go to court to revoke the license for NEWSONE and close it. Then the regulator motivated his decision by the fact that the channel allegedly "incited national, racial or religious hatred or hatred."
In response to the actions of the council, the channel appealed to the court with a statement about the illegality of the decisions made due to the termination of powers of some members of the National Council. On September 26, information appeared on the NEWSONE website that the National Police of Ukraine opened a criminal case on this statement.
It is worth noting that after the decision of the National Council to close NEWSONE in court, Vladimir Zelensky promised to maintain freedom of speech in Ukraine and “not to close the television channels.”
However, an RT source in the National Council explained that the chances of NEWSONE losing the license are still very high.
“Officially, Vladimir Zelensky has no representatives on the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting. But employees of the National Council still consider his opinion, as, by the way, are the judges. But the chances that NEWSONE will lose the license are also quite high - the opposition opinion is not welcomed in Ukraine, ”the channel’s interlocutor said.
Nemensky believes that the list of television channels disagreeable to the authorities has not changed since the leadership of the country by Petro Poroshenko: 112 Ukraine, NEWSONE, NAS and ZIK channels are in a rather dangerous situation.
In turn, Bogdan Bezpalko continued the list of potential goals, adding the Gromadske TV channel and a number of online publications, such as Strana.ua and Vesti, which had already been persecuted during the reign of Petro Poroshenko.
“I am convinced that the right-wing radicals will prompt the Ukrainian authorities who poses a“ threat ”to Ukraine and who needs to be persecuted. I think Zelensky is not going to support freedom of speech, but will continue to pursue Poroshenko’s policy. Perhaps he will even surpass the previous president in the field of economics, privatization or transfer of assets, and maybe in the field of combating freedom of speech, ”the expert concluded.