“Already last week, in response to the current situation regarding the spread of war propaganda, we stopped broadcasting the Russian public station Pervyj channel on O2 TV,” said Veronika Zachariášová, spokeswoman for the Czech branch of O2.
Two Russian-language programs, TNT and Russkoje kino, remain on offer. TV operator Vodafone (former UPC) did not offer Russian state television at all for several years.
“We only offer TV1000 Russkoje Kino, but it is a program of the Viasat (Nordic) group, without any news. It is a selection of films from Russian cinema,” wrote spokesman Ondřej Luštinec. Russian propaganda stations were also eliminated by provider T-Mobile.
Some Internet TVs have blocked it for years
Satellite TV and Internet operator Telly has been blocking similar content for several years. “We fully support Ukraine. We have defended the spread of propaganda for a long time, and since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, no Russian television channels were included in our offer, said company spokesman Jan Schöppel.
Other Cookie providers only offer “neutral” entertainment channels TNT Russia or Friday International. “We are negotiating the inclusion of Ukrainian channels in our portfolio,” he added.
The provider Lepší.TV was initially hesitant to block Russian media. He said in a statement that he wanted to leave room for “all available information”, but he ended up blocking it too.
“Lepší.TV has decided not to broadcast Russian propaganda news stations, where it can be assumed that much of the information here will be distorted and untrue,” the company said in a statement on the social network.
EU: We will stop Russia’s lies
Russian media are only allowed to report on the invasion of Ukraine according to the pro-Kremlin narrative and call it a “special military operation”, not to call it “war” or “invasion”.
Therefore, propaganda is disabled by the authorities, private companies, and hackers. The European Commission on Sunday decided to ban this propaganda medium.
“We will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the European Union. Russia Today and state-owned Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s wars and stoke rifts in our Union,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. .
The EU will provide a more detailed legal and technical solution to this decision in the coming days.
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