Pretoria – The Campaign for Free Expression said it was dismayed that the Russia Today (RT) channel will no longer be available to South Africans.
MultiChoice said on Wednesday that the RT feed had been cut from its service after the global distributor acted upon European Union sanctions imposed on Russia.
In a series of Tweets, executive director of Campaign for Free Expression, Anton Harber, condemned the feed being cut and said in the midst of a war, where information is a key part of the battle, “we need to hear as many different views as possible from both sides”.
“We condemn Putin for closing down media outlets that disagree with him, and we should not do the same.”
Harber also cautioned viewers against the news channel saying it’s an arm of Russia’s president and can be used to steer propaganda and false information should be challenged.
At the same time, we must be aware that RT is an arm of Putin's state propaganda machinery and shows little respect for the truth. RT is sometimes guilty of propagating disinformation, purposefully.
— Anton Harber (@AntonHarber) March 3, 2022
Harber follows a list of organisations and politicians who have expressed their discomfort with the removal of the Russian news channel.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) said the broadcast of RT on the DStv platform is, and continues to be, a commercial agreement between the subscription TV broadcaster, MultiChoice and RT.
It said the authority’s role in the broadcasting of RT has been solely limited to channel authorisation as submitted by the licensee (in this case, MultiChoice) and approved by Icasa, prior to the channel being introduced.
This is a regulatory requirement fulfilled by the licensee before introducing any new channel for consumption by the public.
“Our licensing and compliance division has not received any notification by MultiChoice confirming the discontinuation of the channel on its DStv platform,” said Icasa chairperson Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng.
Modimoeng said it was in the public interest to know the reasons for this discontinuation since the authorisation was approved by the authority.
IOL