Comment by the Information and Press Department on the situation around the Crimean ATR media holding

Submitted on Sun, 04/05/2015 - 22:00

We are deeply perplexed by the hue and cry raised by some of our foreign partners

and human rights organisations over the situation around the Crimean ATR media holding, which, on April 1, discontinued its television and radio broadcasting in the Republic of Crimea after failing to meet the deadline for registration as a Russian media outlet. Attempts to portray what happened as an encroachment on freedom of speech and the rights of Crimean Tatar media are groundless and outrageous. There has been more than enough time since May 2014 to prepare the necessary documentation in a responsible and correct manner. We have an impression that the real reason the media in question has stopped broadcasting is that its owners have chosen to deliberately ignore Russian legislation.

We call on everyone who see themselves as sincere advocates of media pluralism to stop supporting the artificial escalation of inter-ethnic tensions in Crimea, where for the first time the Crimean Tatar language, Ukrainian and Russian have received an equal status enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea.

April 6, 2015