The Denis Diderot Committee has announced the creation of an online petition, which calls upon the European Union and EUTELSAT IGO to sanction the transmission of two major Russian platforms pay-TV platforms, NTV Plus and Trikolor using their positions on the European Eutelsat satellites.
Since the beginning of March, in the context of the war in Ukraine and new restrictions on freedom of expression imposed by the Russian government, two Russian platforms, NTV Plus (part of the Gazprom Media Holding) and Trikolor, have excluded from their line-up all the foreign news channels they were still proposing in February: BBC World, CNN, Deutsche Welle (DW), Euronews (in Russian), France 24, NHK World, TV5 Monde.
These two pay-TV packages operate on satellites at 36°E owned by the company of French law Eutelsat S.A. (ISIN:FR0010221234; Ticker: ETL) and under the rules of the Convention of the intergovernmental organisation EUTELSAT IGO.
It is paradoxical and inadmissible that European satellites are used for the sole broadcasting of Russian channels, which only propagate the official state propaganda of the Kremlin and that Western news channels are banned from an infrastructure managed by a company under French law and in the framework of an intergovernmental convention!
Eutelsat’s 36°E is a strategic satellite position in Russia from where 25-30% of Russians households receive their main television signal. The removal of Trikolor and NTV+ from these satellites would allow for the potential uplink of international news channels, as well as independent Russian language, informative channels.
“The two Russian operators claim that the switch-off of the international news channels was at the initiative of the broadcasters, which is clearly untrue. The EU and EUTELSAT IGO cannot accept this censorship using European satellite capacities and neither the continued transmission on Eutelsat transponders of RT News, the Kremlin war propaganda channel, banned by an EU decision one month ago. We want Eutelsat’s 36°E to become a wellspring of independent news for the Russian people, so that Russian citizens will have the information needed to act,” says Denis Diderot Committee Coordinator.
“We believe in the fundamental goodness of the Russian people. However, because of the complete dominance of the Kremlin’s media, ordinary Russians do not even know the horrors that are now perpetrated in their name upon the Ukrainian people. It is imperative that people of Russia see the truth as to what is happening in Ukraine. 69% of Russians rely upon television for their main source of news, according to TASS. With these sanctions we could create real change in the crucial television space,” says Committee member, Jim Phillipoff.
The Denis Diderot Committee was created on the initiative of two experts in the field of satellite television and is open to any citizen demanding peace in Ukraine, the restoration of the free flow of information, the prohibition of war propaganda and solidarity with Russian civil society fighting for freedom of expression.
Petition
The initial signatories are as follows:
Prof. John Downey, President of the European Communication Research and Education Association, Professor of Comparative Media Analysis at Loughborough University (UK)
Olha Herasymiuk, Chair, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Wolfgang Closs, former Executive Director of the European Audiovisual Observatory (DE)·
Ismo Silvo, Director YLE, Finnish Broadcasting Company, Helsinki (FI)
Valentyn Koval, First Deputy Chairman, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Prof. Ian Christie, Professor of Film and Media history, Birkbeck College, University of London (UK)
Oleg Chernysh, Deputy Chairman, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Daniel & Rachel Barnon, Sleeping Giants (FR)
Isabelle Kersimon, Journaliste, Fondatrice de l'Institut de recherches et d'études sur les radicalités (INRER), Paris (FR)
Olena Nitsko, Executive Secretary, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Philippe Lévrier, former Member of French regulatory authority Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (FR)·
Cécile Despringre, Executive Director of the Society of Audiovisual Authors (EU)
Prof. Francis Biesmans, BETA, Université de Lorraine, (FR) ; Attaché de recherche au COEF, Nelson Mandela University, (South Africa)
Dr. Gert Hallenberger, Media Researcher, Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Fernsehen and the Grimme-Preis, Germany (DE)
Maksym Onopriienko, Member, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Barbara Hayes, Chair of the Society of Audiovisual Authors (EU), Deputy CEO of ALCS (GB)
Prof. Christian Delporte, Professor of Contemporary History, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR)
Dr. André Lange, Former expert in audiovisual markets within an European organisation, Scientific collaborator of the Department Media,Culture and Communication, University of Liège (BE)
Alexander Brykailo Co-owner, Head of Supervisory Board of Solar Media, Sonce TV channel, Founder of Studio Pilot, Film and TV production company, Ukraine
Tetiana Rudenko, Member, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Alain Modot, PDG de DIFFA (Distribution de Films et Fictions Africains) Paris France (FR)
Olexandr Burmahin, Member, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Richard Paterson, Research Associate, Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow (UK)
Arnaud Mercier, Professor of Information-Communication at the à University Paris-Panthéon-Assas, Responsable of the Licence Information Communication, Institut français de Presse (IFP) (FR)·
Prof. François Jongen, Professor of Media Law, UCLouvain (BE)
Alain Bourges, Video artist, retired teacher (FR)
Yurii Zinevych, Member, National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
Prof. Gilles Multinger, Professor of Media History, former journalist, University of Madrid (ES)
Philippe Reynaert, Film consultant, Xanadu (BE)
Olga Romanova, Director and Founder of the Rus Sitting Association, Foundation for assistance to convicts and their families, Moscow (RU)
Dr. Felix Victor Münch, Postdoc Researcher at Leibniz-Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (DE)
Dr. Bruno Somalvico, Editor in chief, Democrazia futura (IT)
Prof. Dick Tomasovic, Professor of film studies, University of Liege (BE)
Prof. Marc Vanesse, Professor of journalism and deontology of information, University of Liège (BE)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Joh. Wiesand, ERICarts Institute and Network / ARCult Media GmbH, Köln (DE)
Markéta Hodouskova, Czech professional in the audiovisual industry, Paris (CZ)
Jim Phillipoff, Media specialist and a former CEO of Ukrainian satellite platforms, former CEO of Kyiv Post Media, Amsterdam (NL)