Moldova has temporarily suspended the broadcast licenses of six television channels for airing "incorrect information" about the country and Russia's war in Ukraine.
The six TV stations are owned or affiliated with businessman Ilan Șhor, who is a fugitive from Moldovan justice and who has been designated for sanctions by the United States and Britain.
The stations have seriously and repeatedly violated Moldova’s Audiovisual Services Code in broadcasting information related to the war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița said on Facebook.
“After almost 300 days of war in Ukraine, the propaganda in the Republic of Moldova has not stopped, in fact it has intensified,” Gavrilita said. “In the situation where not only an energy war is being waged against our country, but also an information war, we have the responsibility and even the obligation to protect our citizens and the country.”
She added that the decision aims to “secure the information space in the country, to eliminate manipulation and propaganda, corrupt and particularly dangerous elements, especially in the difficult period we are going through.”
TV6, one of the channels whose license was suspended, said the decision was illegal and an "unprecedented attack on freedom of expression, editorial freedom, [and] freedom of journalists."
The channel, which is owned by Shor, said the arguments put forth by the country’s Commission for Exceptional Situations, which announced the decision, were unfounded and false.
Shor owns two of the other six channels; another two belong to his close associates; the sixth channel suspended sympathizes with him.
"Moldova must be protected from propaganda and lies," Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu said on Telegram.
The six channels, he said, had covered Moldova and the war "in a biased and manipulative manner."
Russia denounced a decision as "political censorship.”
The ban will start on December 19 and last for the duration of a state of emergency that Moldova declared after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The state of emergency has been renewed several times and currently is due to expire in February.
Britain on December 9 announced the sanctions against Shor and another fugitive, Vladimir Plahotniuc, a businessman and a former politician. The two were sanctioned in October by the U.S. Treasury Department “for actions related to systemic corruption and interference in the elections in Moldova, supported by the Kremlin."