Zero
January 10 the national Council on television and radio denied the news channel UNIAN TV, which belongs to the group “1+1 media”, the digital license.
The group “1+1 media” outraged by this decision of the national Council and considers that, in the midst of the election campaign, unfounded refusal to license the information channel and the license of the Pro channels is solely politically motivated.
“We see that with elections approaching, more and more cases, when a Pro-presidential majority in the national Council continues to defend the interests of certain political forces. We are concerned that Parliament somehow did not cast a vote in 2018 for the resolution on the moratorium on inspections of the media agencies during the election period that is established practice, the election of the past in Ukraine. We are convinced that on the eve of elections politicians should stand by the work of independent media, ‒ says General Director of “1+1 media” Alexander Tkachenko. – At the same time, denying renewal of license UNIAN TV, most of the population of Ukraine is artificially deprived of access to quality content and narrowing down the choices of the viewer to the channels that broadcast exclusively Pro-government point of view”.
The national Council on television and radio broadcasting also refers to the alleged lack of agreement between the UNIAN TV and “Seeboden”. However, this agreement was signed on 20 July 2018.
“Our legal framework is built in such a way that creates a large space for political manipulation. We are convinced that the campaign period should come a silence when the political forces will not interfere in the activities of the media group and the license will be issued in accordance with the provisions of the law. Otherwise, the situation will be more and more to resemble George Orwell’s novel “1984”, ‒ says Director of legal Department of “1+1 media” Tatyana Smirnova.
“1+1 media” intends to defend their rights in court.
We will remind, since 2008, UNIAN TV is licensed to digital terrestrial (multi-channel) broadcasting in multiplex MX-4, which was subsequently continued by the Council in 2015. However, all this time, the channel was not possible to implement broadcasting, because the regulator was not provided with appropriate conditions for this, in particular, has not been defined telecommunications operator. When the opportunity to change the number of the multiplex on the empty seat, “1+1 media” has applied for renewal of the license with a request to record telecommunications operator “Zeonbud” and go to the multiplex MX-3 to have the option of digital broadcasting. Yesterday, the national regulator rejected the application.