Euroopa telekanalid Putini käpa all?

Kreml kulutab käesoleval aastal maailmas oma propagandale ligikaudu 1,5 miljardit dollarit. Ameerikas võib juba praegu vaadata ingliskeelset telekanalit Russia Today. Järjepidevalt püütakse haarata erastruktuuride kaudu soliidseid Lääne ajalehti küll Ühendkuningriigis, kus tegutseb endine KGB välisluureohvitser, miljardär Lebedev, või Prantsusmaal, kus sarnases rollis on Föderatsiooninõukoge liikme, miljardär Pugatšovi poeg.

Juba aastaid kogunevad maailma juhtivate väljaannete tegelased Valdaisse, kus peaminister Putin neid isiklikult võõrustab ja Moskva soovidest teavitab. Ning fakt on see, et Euronews’i venekeelne toimetus (Vene telekanal RTR ostis end aastaid tagasi Euronews’i sisse) ei löö risti ette ilmselge valetamise ees.

Moskva propagandistid ei varjagi, mis on nende eesmärk – tõde ei ole eesmärk, tähtis on lasta asjadel paista nii nagu Venemaa võimuladvikule vajalik. Tuleb luua positiivne müüt endast ja negatiivne müüt kõikidest teistest, eriti nendest, kes Putini pilli järgi ei tantsi.

Nüüd on taas astutud sammuke kaugemale.

Grusiinlased püüavad samuti venekeelse kanaliga Pervõi Kavkazki maailma astuda, et vene keelt kõnelevat maailma Kaukaasia sündmustest infomeerida, kavatsus oli oma kanalit näidata läbi Eutelsati. Kahetsusväärselt astus prantslastele kuuluv Eutelsat plaanile vastu.

Eutelsat ise lükkab kõik süüdistused koostööst Kremliga tagasi, viidates tehnilistele ümberkorraldustele ja grusiinlaste soovimatusele teha koostööd. Käekiri on meile liigagi tuttav.

Otsustasime kolleegidega Euroopa Parlamendist sellise asjade käigu vastu protestida, sest meediavabaduse räige piiramine ei ole mingil juhul aktsepteeritav. Siin on minu, Laima Liucija Andrikiene, Heidi Hauttala ja Vytautas Landsbergise koostatud pöördumine:

„We, the undersigned, are gravely concerned over news that Eutelsat, the leading European satellite operator which is partly funded by French public funds apparently has, under pressure from Russia, refused to broadcast the Georgian channel in Russian language, Perviy Kavkazskiy.

Perviy Kavkazskiy is a new channel which reports from and throughout the post-soviet space, especially the Caucasian region, namely in Georgia, Ossetia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia. It is already acknowledged as broadcasting wider range of views in comparison to other Russian-speaking media outlets in the region. We cannot overstate the importance of this in relation to promoting democracy, rule of law and human rights in the wider Caucasian region.

To begin with, Eutelsat’s satellites W7 and W4 are the only ones to correspond to the antennas in possession of Russian speaking audience in the region. The refusal leaves de facto satellite transmission monopoly over the regional Russian-speaking audience to Intersputnik and its client, Gazprom Media Group, neither of which are known to differ from the Kremlin views.

What is more, we have noticed with concern that this is not the first time that this European satellite operator is suspected to engage in censorship. Similar stance has been taken in relation to broadcasting independent voices from China in 2008 and Iran in 2009.

We hope that the issue will be resolved quickly and that Eutelsatwould ensure that it will broadcast diverse range of views across Europe and wider world.
It is of utmost importance in democratic societies that airing of independent and diverse views is protected. We call the European Union to ensure that broadcasting of diverse views is guaranteed in Europe and beyond.“

Toon ära ka Eutelsati reaktsiooni:

„Until now, Eutelsat has stayed in the background in the face of the Georgian broadcasting company’s allegation that it had, under Moscow’s pressure, prevented the broadcasting one of their channels. Given the political and media turn of events, Eutelsat thinks it necessary to rely on objective elements in order to improve your understanding of this case.

Originally, Georgia Public Broadcasting company GPBS was in discussions with Eutelsat with a view to broadcast television channels through W7, the satellite launched by Eutelsat in November 2009 for a commercialization of its services starting beginning of January 2010.

A 6 day-period of tests occurred mid-January. However, capacity on W7 being in high demand for TV and telecommunication services, the capacity discussed for GPBS was allocated to a European telecom customer who had met terms and conditions not yet met by the Georgian channel.

Contrary to allegations, this customer is not the intergovernmental channel Intersputnik, which has been a client for many years. When W7 became operational, Intersputnik’s contract was renewed and it simply changed satellites to use capacity aboard the new one. It was allocated a totally different part of the satellite from the one planned for the Georgian channel.

Given the situation, Eutelsat, which actually wanted to be conciliatory with GPB, proposed a solution which the Georgian channel refused to take into account: it would have consisted in broadcasting its services through another of our satellites, W2A. Interestingly, this satellite not only covers the same geographical area (Russia and the Caucasian territory) as W7, but it does so in a more powerful way, enabling reception with smaller antennas.

Eutelsat is a technical company, with no powers of censorship. Of the 3,300 channels transmitting through its satellites, dozens could be said to be in opposition to political regimes.

Eutelsat was brought to commercial court for summary judgment (legislative procedure appealed to in case of emergency) on February, 4. On February, 8, the court, which had not found any reason that made the case as serious as the Georgian channel claimed it to be, declared it was not competent to adjudicate it. Thus, in accordance with the regular legislative procedure, a date for a new hearing will be set on February, 22.

Far from accommodating to any kind of political pressure, Eutelsat continuously guarantees the broadcasting of as many diverse views and channels in Europe and beyond as possible. Within this framework, Eutelsat deplores being used as an excuse in the political issue involving Georgia and Russia.“