Independent media council revealed incitement to hatred sounded by anchorpersons of Victory day concert at Inter TV

The Independent media council (IMC) found the TV channel Inter broke the interdiction to incite to ethnic hatred in the concert dedicated to the Victory Day. The anchorpersons argued against honouring those whom they called “fascist criminels”. Such is a conclusion made by the IMC dated of March 21st, as to Detektor Media. The National council on television and radio broadcasting appealed to the Independent media council asking to analyse the words of Andriy Domansky and Anastasia Augule whether they broke the law. At the concert “Victory. One for all” aired by TV channel Inter it was said by the anchorpersons: Andriy Domansky: “And today we cannot allow they called the streets in our cities by the names of fascist criminals, and that their portraits were exhibited with impunity in a torchlight processions in our capital where every single meter had been irrigated with blood of our compatriots”. “And let it seems sometimes that everything is against us, that we are strangers in our own country, it is not true: we are many, we are hundreds in this concert hall, we are millions before the television screens”. Andriy Domansky: “That’s us who put flowers to the Eternal flame on May 9th, that’s us who are restauring memorials to the soldiers who perished combating fascism, tha’s us Ukraine that had been occupied and won despite everything”. The IMC analysed these words and the whole concert for possible incitement to hatred in conformity to the criteria of the European court on human rights: context and content and possibility to cause pernicious effects. “Under condition of lack of public consensus as to celebration of the Victory Day one should consider very thouroughly any statement sounded by representatives of different political camps and belief opponents”, the IMC said. As to the IMC, recourse to term fascist in historical context does not mean by itself incitement to hatred. “But the word “criminal” is not evaluative judgement, this is affirmation of the fact: a person committed a crime. But the fact the person communicated or collaborated with the Reich cannot by itself mean that the person committed crime linked to this regime. That’s why use of phrase “fascist criminals” is manipulation and inadmissible”, as to IMC. Thus, taking into account all this, the IMC found that the broadcasting of the concert dedicated to Victory Day with above-mentioned quotations of anchorpersons broke interdiction to incite to ethnic hatred”, as to itIMC conclusion.