July 14, 2014
Mr. Michael Ebeid
Managing Director
SBS
14 Herbert Street, Artarmon NSW 2064
Dear Michael,
I writing to you on behalf of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) and also on behalf of many members of the community who have contacted the AFUO to express very strong concerns that SBS-TV is re-broadcasting NTV News “Syehodnya” on a regular basis.
We strongly believe that this program should be removed from SBS-TV’s broadcast schedule, as its treatment of current events in Ukraine is often untrue and/or concocted, and therefore totally lacking in credibility.
News should be objective and factual. There are many cases in recent times where this has not been the case. I understand community members have through various channels relayed this to SBS.
I think we would all agree it is totally inappropriate and unacceptable that Australian taxpayer funding of SBS-TV be utilised to spread sheer disinformation and untruths to the Australian viewing public – including Russian speakers from Ukraine and elsewhere – via re-broadcasts of NTV News.
For example, the independent media watch and fact-checking NGO, StopFake.org has consistently revealed and catalogued numerous instances when NTV is simply making things up in relation to events in Ukraine. It would be appropriate for SBS-TV to undertake a detailed review of StopFake’s findings, including its exposure of numerous instances where items on NTV are staged, which can be found on the following link: http://www.stopfake.org/en/?s=NTV.
I wish to note that this criticism of NTV, and SBS-TV’s choice to rebroadcast it, is not an issue of opinion or even political bias. Those are understandable, if not concerning, in the context of issues and news. Rather, it is an issue of a total lack of any journalistic ethics or credibility and the use of manufactured “news” for the purposes of disinformation in a conflict zone. Such disinformation can only be contrary to the interests of greater understanding of core issues.
As the US State Department and Australia’s representatives to the UN Security Council have noted, Russian media organisations are consistently part of “Russia’s global disinformation campaign against the people of Ukraine and their supporters”. It is not acceptable that SBS-TV should, perhaps unknowingly, participate in this disinformation campaign by re-broadcasting NTV News “Syehodnya”.
I am happy meet with you to share further evidence of false reports or reports that are not factual by NTV News on SBS-TV, and to hear your response to our view that it should be removed from broadcast in favor of a more credible Russian-language TV news source. Please do not hesitate to call me on 0419531255 if you wish to discuss this matter further.
Yours sincerely
Stefan Romaniw OAM
Chairman
cc
Dr Bulent Hass Dellal OAM
Acting Chairman SBS Board
