The independent media union of Ukraine (IMUU) considers the search of Crimean channel ATR on January 26, 2015 as the next step of the Russian occupants towards establishment of total censorship on the peninsula.
This is a brutal violation of statue of the international law, including Part 1 of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to which “Everyone has a right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers,” the IMUU assures.
The Convention also contains interdiction of discrimination on any ground including racial, religious, national grounds and so on (Article 14). There are all the reasons to think that the TV channel suffered discrimination exactly on the ethnic ground, because it was the Crimean Tatar one. The Russian Federation violates the document that was signed by its leaders.
The search of the ATR on January 26, 2015 is another step towards closing or “nationalization” of the TV channel by the occupational authorities.
