The Media Movement and the Commission on Journalistic Ethics (KZHE) called on the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to intervene in the situation with the shutdown of Espresso, Pryamiy, and Channel 5 from the digital terrestrial air and explain the reasons for such actions by the RRT Concern (KRRT).

"On April 4, the Broadcasting, Radio and Television Concern (KRRT) stopped broadcasting the Espresso, Pryamiy and Channel 5 channels on the T2 digital network.

We recognize that in wartime certain restrictions on freedom of expression are permissible if they are imposed in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public order in order to prevent riots or crimes - such rules are established by the Constitution of Ukraine and the European Convention on Human Rights. However, we are not aware of any activities of these channels that can be interpreted as the above grounds for limiting their operation.

According to our observations, these channels broadcast the United News marathon for a significant part of their airtime, following the President's decree, and the rest of the time the TV channels' own broadcasting was patriotic and did not go beyond the principles of a unified information policy.

To date, we do not know the reasons for the termination of broadcasting of three TV channels, and nobody publicly explains them at the request of media representatives.

The Media Movement and the Commission on Journalistic Ethics call on the President of Ukraine, as a guarantor of constitutional rights, including the right to freedom of speech, to intervene in this situation and explain the reasons for shutting down TV channels, if any, and to help resume news".

The National Council noted that all decisions of the regulator are on the website. Among them, there are no decisions to drop the three channels.