The scandal with the termination of broadcasting of the «Rain» TV channel in the territory of the Baltic countries acquired a certain resonance in the society and shook all the liberals of the kremlin.
The russian-born television channel «Rain» began its work in 2010 with the declared goal of covering events in russia and the world from a liberal perspective.
After the start of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, the TV channel closed its office in russia and moved to Latvia.
Since December 6, the TV channel’s broadcasting license in Latvia has been revoked, and since December 8, the broadcasting license has been revoked by Estonia and Lithuania.
Of course, the editor-in-chief of «Rain» T.Dzyadko expressed his disagreement with the decision of the Latvian authorities.
❓But was the decision of the Latvian authorities justified?
🔸Firstly, the Latvian authorities acted in full compliance with the requirements of their own legislation. The National Electronic Mass Media Council of Latvia assessed several violations committed by the channel recently. Thus, the channel in Latvia was accused of supporting the war in Ukraine in connection with several episodes:
🔻 his broadcast showed a map with Crimea as part of the russian federation;
🔻 on the air, the words «our army» were heard in relation to the Armed Forces of the russian federation and, in the end, the presenter Oleksiy Korostelov, calling on the air viewers to write about the violations during the mobilization in russia and war crimes by the russian military, said: «We hope that many, including military personnel, help, for example, with equipment and just basic amenities at the front».
This was regarded as «suspicion of the help provided by the TV channel to soldiers of the russian occupation forces», after which Korostelov was released, and the State Security Service of Latvia recommended that the Ministry of Internal Affairs put him on the «black list» of persons who are prohibited from entering the country.
On December 2, the Latvian regulator, the National Electronic Mass Media Council of Latvia (NEPLP), fined the TV channel EUR 10,000 for broadcasting a map of the occupied Crimea as part of russia and the words «our army» in relation to the russian army, warning that after the third violation in the media license will be withdrawn. And only on December 6, when it became clear that the channel’s management does not respect Latvian laws, does not realize the seriousness and severity of these violations, its broadcasting license was canceled and it was forbidden to be in the Latvian information space.
🔸 Secondly, the employees and management of «Rain» call themselves a liberal and anti-putin media. However, this can be doubted, and here are the reasons.
🔻 This media showed the map of russia with the occupied Crimea before, when it worked in russia. In 2019, «Rain» published a map of Ukraine without the Crimean peninsula annexed by russia and part of the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In addition, the map indicated «Kryvogradskaya» instead of the Kirovohrad region. At that time, such ideas about the political map of the world on the TV channel were explained by the need to comply with the requirements of russian legislation. But what prevented expressing the opinion «not according to putin’s requirements» already in Latvia?
🔸 Thirdly, the Baltic countries are not the first to refuse «Rain» to broadcast on their territory.
From March 2014 to January 2017, the TV channel was broadcast in Ukraine, but the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine decided to remove it from the list of foreign programs. This happened due to the fact that numerous violations of Ukrainian legislation were recorded, in particular, the National Council came to the conclusion that the TV channel deliberately distorted information about the state borders of Ukraine and promoted encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
🔸 Fourthly, although the founder of TV Rain, journalist Nataliya Sindeyeva, claimed that the kremlin was obstructing the activities of the channel’s journalists, in a video message she calls the dismissal of anchor Korostelev the most terrible mistake and calls on him to return to work. «Lyosha, sorry», says Sindeyeva to their host’s call to actually help the russian military to comfortably kill Ukrainians. And most of all, her words were sincere, because Sindeyeva realized that «the Ukrainians will not forgive us». Although Korostelov himself assured on December 2 in his Telegram that he has never sent money to the russian army and openly opposes the war, he noted that he felt sorry for the «hungry mobilized man abandoned by everyone».
Thus, the situation with the TV channel «Rain» once again confirmed the futility of the efforts of russian liberal journalists to «sit on two chairs at once», on the one hand declaring democratic values, and on the other hand veiledly supporting putin’s russia.
The activities of the russian liberal media such as «Rain» in the West do not interfere with putin inside russia at all, because not only can they not organize anti-war protests or sabotage mobilization in russia, but they don’t even really try to do it. And if they cannot help anything in countering russian aggression, then why is their activity needed at all?
