Prosecutor-General's Office suspended broadcasting of ‘Echo of Moscow’

According to the editor-in-chief of ‘Echo of Moscow’, the radio station was taken off the air the day before.  This happened at the request of the Prosecutor-General's Office with reference to the placement of ‘calls for extremist activity’ on the website of radio station. Venediktov himself believes that no violations were committed and intends to challenge the decision.

Last Tuesday, the Prosecutor-General's Office initiated the suspension of the broadcasting of the radio station by the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications.

The agency considered that the information broadcast on the radio station's website calls for violence, and also provides deliberately false data regarding the situation between Russia and Ukraine, Interfax reports. In a situation where the violations committed in the opinion of the Prosecutor-General's Office are not eliminated, the consequences for the radio station may come in the form of turning off the broadcast.

At the same time, the radio station will continue to broadcast on the Internet, and according to the deputy editor-in-chief Maxim Kournikov, broadcasting is still going on in a number of cities. According to him, this is due to the fact that disconnection from the air is not an instant process.

Aleksey Venediktov has already made a statement, indicating that the radio station did not receive any reports of claims from the Prosecutor-General's Office.

He is also sure that the ‘Echo of Moscow’ did not commit any violations. The editor-in-chief of the radio station indicated the intention to litigate.