Official Position of the Ministry Regarding Planned TV Conference with Russian TV Channel

The Ministry of Information Policy considers unacceptable the holding of a television conference between Ukrainian TV channel NewsOne and one of the propagandistic news media outlets of the aggressor State.

TV channel Rossiya-1 is part of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, on which sanctions have been imposed by Order of the President of Ukraine No. 126/2018 dated 14 May 2018. The holding of a TV conference with the broadcaster of the aggressor State subjected to sanctions violates Ukraine’s current legislation.

The TV conference with Russian propagandistic news media outlets is an information operation of the Russian Federation, designed to incite extremist manifestations, stoke panic, and tense up and derail the social and political and the social and economic situation, which is defined by the Doctrine of Information Security of Ukraine as a current threat to Ukraine’s national interests and national security in information environment.

The Ministry calls upon all competent bodies, including the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting and the Security Service of Ukraine, to take immediate appropriate measures within their respective competences with a view to preventing the broadcasting of TV channels banned in Ukraine and providing an appropriate legal assessment of the decisions made by the management of TV channel NewsOne. The said circumstances require an urgent and complex response of all competent bodies in order to counter destructive information influence of the aggressor State in Ukraine’s information space. Given a highly likely increase in such provocations, the Ministry also deems necessary that a meeting of the Council of National Security and Defence of Ukraine be held on potential threats to Ukraine’s information security.