“Don’t lead to sin”: US calls on authorities to restore TV channels that have been taken off the air

The US State Department and European structures call for the return of “Pryamy”, “Pyatiy” and “Espresso” to digital broadcasting to ensure freedom of speech. The current government is obliged to pay attention to the warnings of Western allies, because Ukraine’s European integration depends on it.

This was announced on the air of “Pryamoy” by Rostyslav Pavlenko, a people’s deputy from “European Solidarity”.

“They are no longer knocking on the window, but breaking down the door. Because they have been knocking on the window all previous years. The same State Department mentioned this every time in the report. Then they spoke very politely and cautiously, and now look at the wording. They say directly that the marathon is a means of influencing the public. That there are restrictions on participation in this marathon, and that there are actually politically motivated restrictions for three TV channels – “Pryamoy”, “Pyatoy” and “Espresso”. This is unacceptable,” Pavlenko noted.

According to him, the current authorities should pay attention to such warnings from Western allies, because Ukraine’s further European integration will depend on this.

“And what else is very important? There is a direct reference to the position of European structures. And the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council literally wrote that all three TV channels must be returned to digital broadcasting in order to ensure freedom of speech. With such an attitude towards TV channels, what kind of Europe is there? Before talking about opening clusters, that is, negotiations with the European Union in specific areas, we need to ensure the main things. And this will be the main thing that will have to be ensured,” the MP emphasizes.

“Therefore, I want to appeal to those who were playing with the switch in April 2022: do not bring it to sin, bring your behavior into line with the law yourself, cancel these illegal decisions and actions. And you will see that dialogue will be much easier with both European partners and Americans,” summarized Rostyslav Pavlenko, a representative of European Solidarity.

It was previously reported that the US State Department, on the eve of the talks between Trump and Putin in Alaska, reminded about three opposition channels of Ukraine – “Pryamy”, “Pyaty” and “Espresso” , which were disconnected from the air. This is stated in the report on compliance with human rights for the past year. The document, in particular, mentions the Ukrainian telethon “Yedynyi Novyny” as a way of influencing the government’s audience.

“Media observers expressed concern that the single television broadcast could lead to greater government influence over language content. They reported that there was a mutual agreement among participating media groups to coordinate which politicians appeared on air and to show some of the more critical commentators and public figures less actively.

“TV channels considered to be affiliated with opposition parties, including Channel 5, Pryamy, and Espresso, did not participate in the unified broadcast. If a channel refused to reduce its own programming to less than 12 hours to accommodate the live broadcast (telethon), officials retaliated by removing the network from the national digital terrestrial frequencies,” the State Department recalled in its report.

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