Closing Fake News TV Channels Begets Screams Of Fake News
Michael Hedges February 3, 2021 - Follow on Twitter
Harmonious relations between neighboring states is for those states to negotiate. Differences will appear and are often reflected through media flowing across borders. Foreign influence in media is an enduring issue. Disinformation propagated by one state against another is a problem. And there is a reason it never ends.
 Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) ordered robust sanctions on three television channels, published officially (February 2) on the website of the office of president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reported independent Ukrainian media monitor Detector Media (February 3). The channels - 112 Ukraine, NewsOne and ZiK - are notorious for Russian disinformation directed against Ukraine and its current government. The NSDC action comes after investigations spanning more than two years into direct support by the Russian Federation. President Zelenskyy enacted the decision by decree.
“Sanctions are a difficult decision,” said President Zelenskyy in a statement (February 3). “Ukraine strongly supports freedom of speech. However, it is not the propaganda funded by the aggressor country that undermines Ukraine on the path to the EU and Euro-Atlantic integration. The struggle for independence is a struggle in the information war for truth and European values.”
Sanctions enumerated by the NSDC include blocking all assets of the broadcaster, restricting trade, restricting movement of individuals within Ukraine, “cancellation or suspension of licenses and other permits,” suspending money transfers and other financial transactions, prohibiting technology transfers and intellectual property rights and prohibiting use of Ukrainian broadcast frequencies. These will be effective for five years. Infrastructure providers began disabling transmission and related facilities shortly after midnight, local time, February 3.
The channels are technically owned by opposition politician Taras Kozak but Ukraine authorities and international observers believe the ultimate owner is Viktor Medvedchuk, also a member of Ukraine’s parliament and close to Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin. In June 2019 Mr. Kozak formed Novyny Holding as operator of the aforementioned television channels.In recent months he has had issues with Ukraine’s tax authorities. Mr. Medvedchuk served in the administration of Ukraine president Leonid Kuchma in the early 2000’s and has been a vocal supporter of the annexation of the Crimea and the tacit-annexation of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. He was active, though behind the scenes, in the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukraine president who fled to the Russian Federation on the election of Petro Poroshenko.
A statement from Novyny Holding, posted to the 112 Ukraine website (February 2), called the sanctions “a far-fetched pretext” and “a political massacre of undesirable media.” The company “intends to fight for the right to broadcast for Ukrainians, to convey the truth to citizens and to be on the air.” On Monday 112 Ukraine urged viewers to send “letters of gratitude” to Mr. Medvedchuk. The sanctions, said Mr. Kozak on 112 Ukraine (February 3), are “political reprisals.”
On different side, former Ukraine president Poroshenko weighed in on the sanctions, in a statement posted to social media (February 3) but questioned the timing. Earlier sanctions against the TV channels, he said, had been prepared in October 2018 but were set aside because his election campaign - losing to Mr. Zelenskyy - believed the action “would create the problem of recognizing elections as fair and transparent.” He suggested the NSDC action was "a direct result of US sanctions against Russian members of the fifth column who campaigned on these channels.” He went on to criticize president Zelenskyy.
From yet another side there was the journalist’s rights issue. National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) chairman Sergiy Tomilenko complained that the decision "is an information explosion and it shocks international institutions that deal with the protection of journalists' rights and freedom of speech,” quoted by press agency Ukrinform (Febuary 3). Claiming to be apolitical, he said his position, rather, is ”about the right of Ukrainian media outlets and journalists to have rights and responsibilities according to the law, rather than to be suddenly blocked according to a decree."
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