Belarus’ television channel Belarus 24 may join the list of Russian channels banned in Ukraine.
The National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine decided Wednesday to appeal to court to prohibit the retransmission of Belarus 24 and Russia’s channel 365 Dnei in the country.
The Council said in a statement that its decision was due to numerous complaints from citizens about the content of transmissions from the channels, and that the channels did not comply with the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and current regulations in Ukraine.
According to the statement, the Council’s decision followed monitoring undertaken on October 1. “The monitoring found that the “Prava Cheloveka, Vzglyad v Mir” [Human Rights. A Look into the World] show [on Belarus 24] contained anti-Ukrainian propaganda and distorted information about political developments in Ukraine.”
The media regulators avoids steps amounting to censorship because it realizes the importance of freedom of speech and does not interfere in the content of broadcasts, but the regulator must respond when it comes to the incitement of inter-ethnic hatred and war propaganda, said Yuriy Artemenko, chairperson of the Council.
The news of Ukrainian authorities’ intention to ban Belarus 24 came as a surprise to the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company, a spokesperson for the company told BelTA.
“We will look into the situation and study the reasons,” the spokesperson said.
The list of banned Russian channels in Ukraine already includes 15 channels, namely First Channel (Pervy Kanal. Vsemirnaya Set), RTR Planeta, Rossiya 24, NTV Mir, RBK-TV, Life News, Rossiya 1, TVCI, NTV, TNT, Peterburg 5, Zvezda, Ren TV, Russia Today and Istoriya (History).
