MOSCOW, September 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Kiev government’s ban on relay transmissions of fifteen Russian TV channels is a demoded measure for today’s world, the President of Russian Journalists Union, Vsevolod Bogdanov said in an interview with ITAR-TASS.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s National Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting issued a blacklist of Russian TV channels, the programs of which cannot be relayed either over the air or in cable networks. The ban embraces not only government-controlled Russian broadcasting companies but also the private business channel RBC-TV and Istroriya (History) channel.
Another Ukrainian governmental department supervising the media, the Stare Committee for Radio and Television Broadcasting, called on the Ukrainians back in July to refrain from giving interviews to Russian reporters.
“Removal of Russian channels signals the desire of Kiev authorities to conceal truth about the bloodletting in eastern regions from the Ukrainian audiences, to hide away the information the regime does not find to be lucrative,” Bogdanov said. “That’s a shameful action indicating disrespect for society.”
He believes a modern man cognizes the situation in the world through the common informational space.
“It was this fact that prompted the political technology spin doctors in Kiev to take prohibitive measures against the Russian TV channels,” Bogdanov went on. “Their logic goes as follows - what if Ukrainians change their opinion about the events in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after watching reports from there and what if it’ll be unfavorable for the authorities and the people will refuse to send their husbands, sons and brothers to the frontline?”
“In other words, the Kiev regime is defending itself, in the first place, and not its citizens,” he said. “UN says some 3,000 people have already died in combat actions in Eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian propaganda machine, which bolsters the authorities, dooms society to new victims.”
“At the end of August, a television and cinematic forum called Vmeste /Together/ was held in Yalta,” Bogdanov said. “It brought together representatives of 32 countries. The programs of Ukrainian TV channels shot through with nationalism, an ethnic superiority complex, and out-of-place jesting towards the Jews and the Russians living in Ukraine.”
“This was a stunningly one-sided picture of the world with distinctive allusions to Goebbels. Quite obviously, it is this type of propaganda that Ukraine’s National Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting is interested in.”
“Corrupt and venal journalism is no novelty in this world and in Russia, too, but a situation where our Ukrainian counterparts serve mostly the channels belonging to oligarchs is a real tragedy for society,” he said. “Take Germany where any media outlet, even the most prestigious one, can lose reputation and go broke if it is proved that its reporter has acted out a PR contract and has received a bonus for it. But in Ukraine such things are part of everyday practice.”
“Oligarch /Igor/ Kolomoisky, who finances the punitive battalions accused of persecution of Donbass area residents, has been placed on an international wanted list by Russia’s Investigations Committee,” he said. “Along with it, Kolomoisky openly dictates to the journalists of the 1 + 1 channel, which he owns, who the information war is to be conducted against at the moment.”
“In the meantime, the National Board issued one more broadcasting license to Kolomoisky just a few days ago. Now he can launch a channel named Ukraine Today and this means the Kiev authorities are going to carry on their campaign of hatred towards Russia.”
“A nation’s self-respect can’t be based on the propaganda of animosity and on the denial of shared history of the Russians and Ukrainians,” Bogdanov said. “That is why the actions taken by the Kiev government in the sphere of information are causing bitter frustration.
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