TVi demands that the Prosecutor take measures against Triolan

The beleaguered independent TV channel TVi has carried out its own investigation into the activities of the cable provider Triolan and has passed the information on to the Prosecutor.

TVi asserts that the cable provider is guilty of tax violations and demands that a check is carried out.

Journalist Artem Shevchenko carried out the investigation finding evidence of “double” bookkeeping, activities without a licence and payment of bribes to state officials.

As reported, just 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)..

The access to almost the only independent TV channel in Ukraine has still not been restored, with access in fact now also removed by other providers in Donetsk and Mariupol.

TVi Director Mykola Knyazhytsky 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”.

Information about TVi’s complaint to the Prosecutor from www.telekritika.ua