Oleh Nikolenko, the official representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has called upon Serbia not to permit the broadcast of the propaganda channel Russia Today (RT).
He reminded the public that in the RT broadcast, „the aggression against Ukraine is constantly being justified and calls for the genocide of Ukrainians are being made.“
„RT has nothing in common with freedom of speech and journalism. The propaganda and disinformation that this channel spreads will not benefit Serbian society. We are calling upon Belgrade not to make this decision,“ pravda.com.ua quoted Nikolenko as saying.
Nikolenko remarked that permitting the RT broadcast is not in line with Serbia’s course to become a member of the European Union (EU), which introduced sanctions against this propagandistic Russian media source.
„The Serbian government must understand that RT can start destabilizing the situation in Serbia at any moment,“ Nikolenko summed up.
The Russian state channel Russia Today, which is banned from broadcasting in the EU because of “inciting and supporting Russian aggression” against Ukraine, said Tuesday that it has launched a multimedia online website in Serbian, dubbed RT Balkan.
RT Balkan editor-in-chief Jelena Milincic said “people the region will now have access to RT in the Serbian language, which will provide a more complete picture of the modern world.”
Allowing the broadcast of the Russian RT channel in Serbia has nothing to do with free speech, because this is not a medium but a mouthpiece for Russia’s war propaganda, European Parliament Rapporteur Vladimir Bilcik MEP told N1.