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The Lithuanian authorities have banned the broadcasting of five RT TV channels in the country, RIA Novosti reports. The Commission on Radio and Television said that this number included RT, RT HD, RT Spanish, RT Documentary HD, RT Documentary.
Earlier, the Latvian authorities had made the similar desicion. This was announced by the National Council for Electronic Media. The sanctions imposed by the European Union against the general director of MIA Rossiya Segodnya Dmitry Kiselev served as the reason for the ban. The Latvian regulator has called on other European countries to do the same.
RT is run by Margarita Simonyan, who is not subject to any restrictions. Dmitry Kiselyov is the head of the MIA Rossiya Segodnya. These companies are two separate legal entities.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reminded that it was not the first time Latvia was trying to clean the information space from the media, which represent a point of view that is different from the officially accepted one. At the same time, about 40% of the population of the republic prefer to receive information in Russian. A ban on Russian media runs counter to freedom of speech and expression, and also violates the right to free access to information.
Russkiy Mir
