The Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (LRTK) has barred the Russian TV channel RT from broadcasting in Lithuania. The ban is to come into force on July, 9.
The fact that notorious Dmitry Kiselyov is on the EU blacklist is at the bottom of the measure taken. According to the watchdog, as Director of Rossiya Segodnya, Kiselyov is responsible for the programmes aired on RT.
“Basing its decision on the Foreign Ministry’s recommendations, LRTK decided to stop the broadcasts of five RT programmes [RT, RT HD, RT Spanish, RT Documentary, and RT Documentary HD] in Lithuania,” Lithuanian National Radio and Television quotes Mantas Martišius, Head of the commission.
Last week, Latvia drew the line with RT broadcasting in its territory.
The Russia Today (Rossiya Segodnya) agency was established in 2013 after Vladimir Putin’s signing a corresponding decree. It is headed by well-known Russian propagandists Dmitry Kiselyov (Director General), and Margarita Simonyan (editor in chief).
Among others, Russia Today includes the news agency RIA Novosti and a number of Sputnik news sites, one of which is at play in Belarus. The media outlets are accused of thinly veiled propaganda of the so-called Russian World, justifying the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s aggression in the east of Ukraine as well as hailing Putin’s political decisions.
The media brand Sputnik was designed by agency (Russia Today) for a global audience. In 2014, the agency announced Sputnik’s broadcasting in 30 languages (incl. Arabic, Chinese, Crimean Tatar, English, Estonian, French, Deutsch, Georgian, Japanese, Latvian, Moldovian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian), with over 800 hours of radio programming daily, covering over 130 cities in 34 countries. Up to 100 journalists – ‘local professionals’ were expected to work at each Sputnik centre.
