The Dozhd TV channel (referred to as a “foreign agent” in Russia) has announced that it has terminated cooperation with TV host Alexei Korostelev. The day before, the reporter had said live, urging viewers to write about violations of mobilization, that the TV channel would be able to help the Russian military with equipment at the front.
“We have decided to terminate our cooperation with Alexei Korostelev as of today. This is a very difficult decision for us, but the management of “Dozhd” believes that it is the only correct and possible one,” the head of the information service of the channel , Ekaterina Kotrikadze, said in the broadcast.
After the noisy scandal, two famous journalists – Vladimir Romensky and Margarita Lyutova – announced this terminate cooperation with “Dozhd” in protest against the decision of the channel management, writes the Russian edition of the BBC. Romenski explains that he was Korostelev’s lead producer on the evening news and shares responsibility for what he said on the air, but also that the editor-in-chief told him to “put your badge and revolver on the table.” Romenski says he does not agree with the decision of the TV channel’s management.
Lyutova also believes this people have “the right to be wrong and the right to give an explanation before being fired.
On Thursday evening, during the live program “Here and now”, Korostelev, reading on the air a request from the editorial team to send signals about the irregularities in the mobilization, added, ostensibly in his own name: “We hope that many servicemen have been able to make use of basic equipment and services themselves at the front.”
After the scandal that erupted on Friday night, the phrase was removed from the show, and the channel’s editor-in-chief Tikhon Dyadko, also referred to as a foreign agent in Russia, apologized. He stated it Korostelev’s remark is ‘misleading viewers’ and “create the impression that Dozhd is engaged in assistance to the Russian army.”
“In this regard, it is important to note the following: the TV channel did not, does not participate and will not participate in helping to equip the Russian army – front or outside,” Dyadko wrote on his Telegram channel.
On Friday evening, Korostelev himself commented on the scandal: “I don’t send money to the Russian army for helicopters or even socks, and I didn’t ask. The words were taken out of context. I feel sorry for the hungry mobilized people (it was about them ), abandoned by everyone? Yes. Is Putin handsome? No. The watershed seems to pass somewhere here. Am I helping the mobilized people? Just talking about them”.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the introduction of penalties in criminal cases for the distribution of “fake military”, thanks to which the Russian authorities understand almost all information about the war that deviates from the official reports of the Ministry of Defense, “Dozhd” first stopped his work and then left Russia. In Russia, the channel’s website was blocked by the Prosecutor General’s Office. The channel is broadcast from Riga and has studios in Amsterdam, Tbilisi and Paris.
“The dismissal, if it will save the TV channel and allow my colleagues to continue working, I am not against,” Korostelev stressed, referring to the work of the Riga TV channel.
In Latvia
The broadcasting of the channel has already repeatedly caused dissatisfaction with Latvian supervisory authorities and officials. Yesterday it was announced that Latvian National Council for Electronic Media (NEPLP) fined a TV channel 10,000 euros for showing on the air a map with annexed Crimea marked as Russian and the words “our army” in reference to the Russian military.
The organization said this was the second violation by the TV channel. If there are three “serious violations”, the Council has the right to revoke the broadcasting license in Latvia.
“Dozhd” stopped working in Russia in early March, after journalists in the country were threatened with criminal liability under the new article of the penal code for “false military personnel”. Subsequently, the channel managed to get permission to operate in Latvia, where Russian state television channels are banned due to propaganda.
