Lithuania blocks Russian TVCi channel over ‘incitement of war’
Lithuania suspended the retransmission of the Russian TV channel TVCi Lithuania for six months for inciting war and hatred, as reported by Delfi news agency. The station is owned by the Russian State TV company, TV Center.
According to Delfi, the Lithuanian Radio and TV Commission (LRTC) decided to suspend the retransmission two weeks ago, stating that the channel has repeated violations and the sanctions imposed earlier have not yielded any results. This decision by the commission was upheld by the Vilnius District Administrative Court.
The commission's attention was drawn to the comments made during The Right to Know program on June 10th by State Duma Vice Chairman Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who, as the commission established, incited war, hatred, and intolerance among nations. Zhirinovsky spoke about the occupation of Ukraine and Transnistria. The representatives of the channel, who sent written explanations and participated in the commission’s hearing denied that any violations had occurred.
Lithuania started to restrict Russian channels for violations after the Crimean annexation in 2014 and the beginning of the war in the Donbas.
The TVCi’s broadcasts were previously suspended for the month of April, after LRTC established that during the In the Center of Events with Anna Prokhorova program which was covering the events of January 13, 1991, defamatory information about Lithuania was presented.
Last year the Russian television channel RTR Planet was also suspended in Lithuania because of Zhirinovsky's remarks.