TV Rain says ‘decisions have to be made’ about the network’s future
Natalia Sindeeva, CEO of TV Rain, posted a brief comment about the network’s situation on her personal Telegram channel.
“We wound up in a human crisis, and we differed seriously in our assessments of very important things. I need time to think over everything that has happened. Decisions have to be made. A little later,” she wrote.
Latvia revoked TV Rain’s broadcast license on December 8, which also made it impossible for the network to broadcast in Lithuania and Estonia. Apart from that, not all of the network’s employees approved of leadership’s decision to fire Alexey Korostelev for on-air remarks about helping Russian troops.
Sindeeva had previously apologized to Korostelev and asked him to return to TV Rain. She also asked host Margarita Lyutova (who also works as a special correspondent for Meduza) and Vladimir Romensky, both of whom decided to leave TV Rain after Korostelev was fired, to return to the network.
Sindeeva’s interview with Meduza
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On December 6, Latvia’s National Council for Electronic Media announced that it would revoke TV Rain’s broadcast license because of on-air remarks about helping Russian troops. Before that, the council fined the network 10,000 Euros (around $10,540 USD) for broadcasting a map that showed Crimea as part of Russia, and for calling the Russian army “our army” on air.
After the war in Ukraine began, TV Rain was blocked in Russia. The network got a Latvian broadcasting license in June. TV Rain has announced that they will continue to broadcast on YouTube. Journalists have called the Council for Electronic Media’s complains “unjust and absurd.”
What exactly did he say?
On December 1, Alexey Korostelev invited viewers to send TV Rain personal stories about violations during Russian mobilization, saying “many of these stories are now public. We hope that we can help many service members, for example, with equipment and basic amenities at the front.” Later, Korostelev wrote on his personal Telegram that he’d had a slip of the tongue on air. TV Rain leadership also called it a mistake and a slip of the tongue.