Following Privatbank, the 1+1 TV channel is taken away from Kolomoisky
Journalists from the 1+1 TV channel, owned by the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, sent an open letter to President Petro Poroshenko, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy and head of government Vladimir Groysman.
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The letter published on the channel’s website states that today the license for analogue broadcasting of the “1 + 1” channel expires, which was never issued, although on December 15 the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting unanimously voted to re-issue and extend the license for the channel .
“During the consideration of the application, which lasted 6 months, no official complaints were received against the channel. Over the past two weeks, we have been receiving information from various sources about an attempt to reverse this decision and carry out a raider takeover of the channel. Dear Petr Alekseevich, as a person who, including his own funds and resources, invested in the creation of media in Ukraine, you, like no one else, should understand the importance of this issue and the inadmissibility of developing a situation where, contrary to the legal procedure, the channel cannot renew its license.
We want to remind you of the role of the media in general, and 1 + 1 in particular, during the Revolution of Dignity. During the reign of Yanukovych, both we and our colleagues from other media - Channel 5, Channel 24, channels of other media groups, became accustomed to the need to constantly resist pressure and attempts by the authorities to interfere in the work of the media. We are sure that from the stage of the Maidan, the three of you defended, among other things, the inadmissibility of a repetition of such a situation. We are surprised and concerned that the National Council, whose members are appointed directly by the President and the Verkhovna Rada, is delaying the process of implementing its own decision,” the appeal says.
The authors of the letter, citing reliable sources, claim that it is the presidential administration that is “trying to influence decision-making by the National Council and transfer control of the channel to other hands.”
“We want to warn and warn those behind the attempts to turn off the channel, which is a daily source of news for millions of Ukrainians - even in the absence of paper, we have the legal right to continue broadcasting. It is no longer possible to intimidate us, but we hope that in 2016, unlike the situation three years ago, the state itself is interested in the implementation of legal procedures and the work of independent media,” the letter says.
In addition to the channel’s management, the letter was signed by the head of the Kvartal-95 studio, Vladimir Zelensky, who at one time called opponents of the post-Maidan regime “scum.”
Following PrivatBank, Kolomoisky is being stripped of his 1+1 TV channel.