The channel said ‘it hoped that it could return to broadcasting and continue with the work’
Credit: Twitter @@bubbaprog
Russian television channel TV Rain (Dozhd) has suspended its operations temporarily after government pressure regarding its coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The journalists at the channel, one of the country’s last independent news outlets, decided to make an appeal for peace in their last broadcast and resigned on air after declaring “no to war”.
As the staff of the liberal media outlet walked out of the studio after resigning, TV Rain aired a performance of the Swan Lake. The broadcast was a reference to the failed coup against former Soviet Union premier Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991. At the time of the coup d’etat, television stations in the Soviet Union broadcasted Swan Lake instead of the political chaos happening at that time.
Have a look at the last broadcast of TV Rain that has now gone viral:
In a statement to Reuters, the network’s general director, Natalia Sindeyeva stated that the staff of the channel needs “the strength to understand how we can work from here. We really hope that we will return to broadcasting and continue our work”.
According to a report in The New York Times, TV Rain had been blocked earlier this week by Russia’s telecommunications regulator. Some members of the independent media outlet’s staff had fled the country due to fears over their own safety. The last broadcast of the network was aired on its YouTube channel.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has led to a renewed crackdown on the few remaining independent media outlets in the country. Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow), one of the few liberal radio channels present in Moscow, was also taken off air due to pressure by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government regarding the channel’s coverage of the Ukraine crisis.
Moscow has ordered that only information from official sources is to be published regarding the war in Ukraine, according to reports. An Al-Jazeera report states that media outlets have been penalised for spreading “deliberately false information” about the country’s actions in its pro-western neighbour.
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