by Thinus Ferreira
While DStv subscribers are wondering why MultiChoice hasn't removed Russia's RT propaganda channel in the way that other pay-TV operators in the world have done and with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission receiving complaints from DStv subscribers, MultiChoice says it has no control over RT.
Meanwhile a DStv subscriber Jared Myroff has started an online petition, directed to MultiChoice CEO Calvo Mawela and the pay-TV operator's chairperson Imtiaz Patel, imploring MultiChoice to remove RT from DStv.
RT is also carried on Telkom's TelkomONE streaming service, with an RT documentary channel carried on StarTimes's StarSat pay-TV service.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine that started an unprovoked war last week with Ukraine, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) told TVwithThinus on Monday that it has received 3 complaints from DStv subscribers so far asking why MultiChoice has not removed the Kremlin-funded propaganda channel from DStv's channel line-up.
With pay-TV services in America, Canada, Germany, Poland and several other countries including Australia that removed RT since Saturday from their channel line-ups, MultiChoice was asked whether the Randburg-based pay-TV operator is looking at doing the same, and what MultiChoice's stance is on the content being broadcast by RT on its DStv platform.
MultiChoice on Monday through one of its external PR agencies said "We have no editorial control over third-party channels".
According to the BCCSA and Broadcasting Code, operators like MultiChoice are responsible for all of the content - whether local channels or international third-party channels - they broadcast.
Australia’s
biggest pay-TV operator Foxtel also removed RT on Sunday as a linear TV channel
and from its streaming service.
"In view of concern about the situation in
Ukraine, the Russia Today channel is currently unavailable on Foxtel and
Flash," Foxtel said in a statement.
Canada's two biggest pay-TV services, Rogers Communications and Bell Canada both announced on Monday that they're dropping RT completely.
America's DirectTV on Monday announced that it's removing RT "and will no longer offer their programming effective immediately".
The 1+1 Media Group, a Ukrainian media conglomerate, on Monday said they wrote to media companies worldwide, asking them to stop transmitting Russia's propaganda-filled TV channels like RT.
"More than 20 local providers from Poland, Australia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Canada, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Germany, as well as representatives of international corporations have already responded to the request," 1+1 Media Group said in a press release on Monday.
"As of 26 February they have started the turning off of the propagandistic TV channels on their satellites, cable networks and across other platforms and sources."
YouTube
also blocked RT from generating any advertising revenue from any of its content
placed on Google’s video streaming service.
"In light of extraordinary circumstances in Ukraine,
we're taking a number of actions,” Michael Aciman, global communications and
public affairs manager at Google, said in a statement.
"We're pausing a number of channels' ability to monetize on
YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions.
We will be significantly limiting recommendations to these channels. And in
response to a government request, we've restricted access to RT and a number of
other channels in Ukraine."
In the United Kingdom where RT still remains on the air, that country's broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, on Monday announced in a statement that it had " opened 15 new investigations into the due impartiality of news programs on the RT news channel."
"We have observed a significant increase in the number of programs on the RT service that warrant investigation under our Broadcasting Code," Ofcom said.
A DStv subscriber Jared Myroff has started an online petition on change.org that already gained traction, saying that RT is "a tool of the greater Russia propaganda machine" and that is "currently using its air time to spread misinformation on the invasion that Russia has undertaken on Ukraine".
"As a DStv customer, part of your fees goes towards DStv to paying for this channel to have air time in our country and poison the minds of our citizens."
"Essentially our MultiChoice subscriptions help fund Russia and Putin's propaganda machine. The goal of this petition is to gain the attention of the top management of MultiChoice and to remove the Russia Today "news" channel from our screens," the petition states.
