Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has banned a number of Russian social networks and media, which also includes RBC, referring to the independent Russian mass media company RBC. RBC has a great risk by publishing their revelations about the corrupt Putin regime.
Ukraine bans Russian social network “Vkontakte” and “Classmates”, the mail server mail.ru and the search engine Yandex. Both social networks are among the most popular in Ukraine. The ban has, however, not powered — it was initiated by a personal decree of the President Petro Poroshenko.
At the same time will be blocked the Russian TV channel RBC, one of the few media that are engaged in critical and investigative journalism in Russia in the last five years. One of the most famous journalists of RBC in history was Jeanne Nemtsov, the daughter of the murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. Prior to that, from the Ukrainian networks kicked the sole Russian independent TV channel “Rain”.
Earlier, Ukraine has blocked the broadcasting of Russian state TV channels “the First channel” “Russia-24” and NTV. The solution, obviously, does not meet the principles of press freedom. But here at least there is some logic, as these channels clearly represent the mouthpieces of propaganda, which played a very destructive role in the development of the conflict in the East of Ukraine. They spread flagrant lies and contributed to the widening gap between the inhabitants of the separatist regions and the rest of the country.
I am not advocating censorship but I can understand the safety aspect specifically in this case. Ukraine — a country that is threatened with collapse, and there is nothing surprising that she wants to limit the possibility of intervention by hostile States with the aim to worsen the situation, systematically spreading false information.
But as for the ban on “Rain”, and now RBC, here logic is different, and it’s much more problematic. Formally, the “Rain” was disabled due to the fact that there is used a map that showed Crimea as part of Russia. It was not a decision of the channel: if they did differently, the Russian authorities, they would have simply shut down. At the same time, “Rain” managed to give balanced information. This means that they critically approached the elucidation of the role of Russia, but Ukraine is also subjected to the analysis.
The fact that Poroshenko now also wants to prevent the Ukrainians to read RBC, reinforces the impression that we are talking not about security matters. The speech about the Ukrainian political system, which is the world’s Poroshenko does not tolerate criticism. For him, criticism equals disloyalty. For the same reason, well-known Ukrainian journalist Savik Shuster threatened last year by the loss of the work permit.
Here’s some of the background is the absurd fact that RBC business channel related to the media that publishes the exposure with the exposure, including on Putin’s inner circle, soon it will be impossible to see in the Ukrainian network. For Poroshenko, the problem is not that RBC uncritically refers to Putin, and that RBC is equally critical to all.
Poroshenko himself did not sell its own TV channel — despite promises. His actions begin to indicate that the only journalism, which he himself regards as desirable, is loyal to him journalism.
Now Poroshenko is celebrating the forthcoming introduction of a visa-free regime with the EU, a big and important step for the suffering of the country. Ukraine is the most free media of all the former Soviet countries. Surprisingly, the EU repeatedly allows Poroshenko to avoid responsibility for its limitations.
