MOSCOW, March 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian NTV television urges Ukrainian viewers to watch its programs on the NTV website after Ukraine suspended retransmission of NTV television channel, a report of the state-owned TV channel said on Thursday.

“Luckily, tendentious decisions by the new Kiev authorities, issued as a judicial decree, don’t affect in any way a free circulation of information via the Internet in the 21st century. Within a day-and-a-half after the broadcasting was stopped, the number of visits from Ukraine to the NTV website has grown more than 12 times,” the document said.

“Today we directly appeal to our numerous Ukrainian viewers. As long as the scandalous ban on NTV broadcasts stays in place, visit our website or install our free apps for iOs and Android on your smartphones and workpads,” the report said. “Nobody can forbid you from watching what you want. We have launched online live broadcasts and have prepared for an inflow of viewers,” it added.

As to “the extent to which the decisions of the present-day Ukrainian authorities comply with loudly proclaimed ‘European values’, it mentioned the position of the OSCE Special Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, who dubbed the NTV blackout in Ukraine as a form of censorship.

On March 25, the Kiev administrative court ruled suspension of the broadcasting by Russian TV channels in Ukraine for the time a lawsuit of the National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting was being considered.

The National Council asked the providers to suspend retransmission of Rossiya 1, Rossiya 24, ORT, RTR Planeta and NTV-Mir television channels.