Political parties in South Africa have criticised MultiChoice’s decision to suspend a Russian news channel on DStv.
Last week MultiChoice suspended the airing of Russia Today, a Russian news television station on channel 407 after Russia invaded Ukraine.
In a statement, Multichoice said, “sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU have led to the global distributor of the channel ceasing to provide the broadcast feed to all suppliers, including MultiChoice.”
South Africa’s ruling party the ANC urged MultiChoice to reconsider its decision, saying it (the decision) has a negative impact on citizens’ freedom of choice. ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said:
The sanctions imposed on Russia have resulted in the MultiChoice platform unilaterally withdrawing Russia TV from its offerings, impacting negatively the freedom of choice to subscribers and limiting their consumption of news on the developments in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Black First Land First deputy president, Zanele Lwana, revealed that the party plans to march to MultiChoice’s offices to lodge a complaint. She said:
As soon as we have finalised our internal processes, we are going to take to the streets at the MultiChoice offices.
We stand with Russia and we take inspiration from them. The West has a vested interest in other countries and is not being condemned for wanting to take other states’ resources.
The west does not care about people’s livelihoods and business, will not start or end by them.
The West and the EU have imposed unreasonable sanctions on Russia and are suppressing dissenting voices to nurse their own interests.
Russia has proven over and over again its alliance with a developing country like South Africa.
SADTU, the EFF, and a civil organisation, The Freedom of Expression Institute of SA, all condemned the move and urged MultiChoice to reinstate the channel with immediate effect.