The cable TV operator DonStatTV has announced that it is stopping broadcasting programmes of the independent TV channel TVi in its networks. It told the information agency Ukrainian News that it was stopping immediately and was unlikely to reinstate the broadcasts.

It stated also that other cable TV providers in Donetsk were refusing to broadcast TVi.

Ukrainska Pravda reports the Mayor of Donetsk’s claim that this is untrue and fabricated by the opposition.

We approached the Director of TVi, Mykola Knyazhytsky who stated that it was true.

As reported earlier, Knyazhytsky has suggested on his Facebook page that  those who thought up this latest attempt to restrict freedom of speech are in fact doing President Yanukovych and the “family” (family and close associates of Yanukovych widely seen as gaining control in the country) no favours. Such encroachments on freedom of speech, he says, will not go unnoticed, reflecting badly not only on the President, but on all those who carry out criminal orders.

He suggests a “worthy” response.

“”We are therefore proposing that all local television channels can broadcast any of our programmes on any scale free of charge or for one hryvnia.

He tells readers that they can contact him via facebook or at mk[at] tvi.com.ua.

“It’s clear that we will win. In the modern world totalitarian dinosaurs are dying out”.

Days after the scandalous decision by the State Tax Administration to initiate charges of tax evasion against the Director of TVi, Mykola Knyazhytsky, TVi disappeared from the programmes offered by Triolan. Around 200 thousand viewers were affected in Dnipropetrovsk; Donetsk; Kharkiv; Kyiv; Luhansk; Odessa; Poltava; Simferopol; Sumy and Chuhuyev (Kharkiv oblast)..

Following strong protest from media organizations in Ukraine and from international structures and NGOs, the tax evasion charges were dropped, however a large number of viewers are still unable to watch TVi because of the arbitrary action of Triolan.