Ukraine’s National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting has granted four Russian TV channels permission to broadcast in the country. The channels allowed to broadcast are Zoopark, Ocean-TV, Feniks + Cinema and Topshop TV.
Broadcasting by foreign channels whose programs had not been adapted to Ukrainian laws, including Russia’s Channel One, RTR-Planeta, Ren-TV and TVts International, was suspended on November 1, 2008. Channel One and Ren-TV have since been granted temporary permission to broadcast. More than 10 other Russian TV channels were also granted permission to begin work last December.
It was also reported that Ukraine’s objections related mainly to advertising aired by the channels. The Ukrainian distributors of certain channels were ordered to bring the broadcasts in line with Ukrainian laws.
Language has been a contentious issue in relations between Russia and Ukraine, where some political groups have opposed the “Russification” of the country. Russian is still widely spoken in Ukraine, especially in the east, the Crimea and the capital. Many people in the former Soviet republic have never learnt to speak Ukrainian.
(Source: RIA Novosti)
on Mar 1st, 2009 at 15:05
In this particular case it wasn’t so much about the language or regulations on commercials. The Ukrainian authorities had issues with news and political programming about the internal situation in Ukraine. Also, Kiev discovered that it couldn’t sell its version of events in S.Ossetia to Ukraine’s Russian-speaking viewers, as they had an alternative source of information from Moscow.
RTR-Planeta provides the most extensive coverage of the local Ukrainian events. I guess that’s why it’s still banned.