Ukraine’s media regulator wants three Russian TV channels to be recognized as “terrorist organizations”

“In their broadcasts, the TV channels Rossiya 24, RTR Planeta, and Perviy, reporting terrorist acts in Vinnytsia, Olenivka, and Chaplyne, misinformed their audience, disseminated information selectively, gave certain advantages in covering facts, which is exclusively a propaganda activity aimed at to incite war and ensure its support by the audience of these TV channels,” the regulator says.

It is noted that the National Council expressed its position in letters to law enforcement based on the monitoring of the programs of the specified TV channels, which exposed Russia’s efforts to justify Russia’s act of terror in Vinnytsia, while at the same time inciting similar operations in the future.

It is reported that Russian journalists and program participants limited the coverage of the tragic events in the Olenivka penal colony, where dozens of Ukrainian POWs are believed to have been killed, to 12 narratives, in particular, shifting the blame to the Ukrainian leadership. Regarding the events at the Chaplyne train station, Russian journalists and officials claimed that “Russian missile units purposefully targeted and hit a train that was supposedly transporting Ukrainian servicemen and military equipment.”

“RTR Planeta, Rossiya 24, and Perviy belong to the poll of mass media in which the terrorist state (aggressor state) – the Russian Federation – has an ownership share. All editorial decisions regarding circulated information belong only to broadcasters, their management, and journalists. Therefore, the responsibility for the dissemination of information by these mass media that justifies, incites, and supports terrorism is a media component of Russia’s state-sponsored terrorism against Ukraine,” the National Council stated.

In view of this, the regulator appealed to law enforcement to take into account the facts of the facilitation and implementation of terrorist activities by the specified Russian TV channels and asked to consider the possibility of recognizing these TV channels as terrorist organizations due to the justification and public support of incitement to acts of terror, to hold those guilty of illegal actions accountable.

The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and the National Council appealed to the European Commission regarding the manipulative coverage of the Russian war in Ukraine by the Russian version of Euronews.