The Ukrainian media community calls on the European Commission and the Euronews management to respond to the war-related manipulations on the air of the Russian language version of the Euronews TV channel.

An open letter has been submitted to the Euronews head office in Lyon, investment company Alpac Capital, which recently bought the controlling stake in the Euronews television company and declared the need to strengthen the Euronews' "European identity," and to the European Commission, which subsidizes the broadcaster, reports Detector Media.
Ukraine's leading media groups – 1+1 Media and Starlight Media, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, the Media Movement, NGO Detector Media, the Institute of Mass Information, other organizations and media – have joined forces and request:

to pay attention to the content of the Russian language version of Euronews, to involve propaganda and disinformation experts in the analysis of this content, and to make appropriate operational, staff and strategic decisions. Namely, the open letter refers to the analysis of the content published on the Russian-language Euronews in five days (Monday–Friday, 15.08–19.08). The signatories have concluded that the channel engages in massive daily media manipulation on the topic of war. This manipulation is being carried out not through outright fakes, but through targeted yet systematic, and therefore effective, influence on the audience. The pro-Russian understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships of what is happening in Ukraine, of Russia's role in these processes, the parties' responsibility in the war, etc is being subliminally imposed on the viewers. The content with manipulative elements is on the air every day and is "scattered" among more or less "unbiased and equidistant" materials;

Euronews TV has a wide coverage of 400 million households in 160 countries of the world, 68% of those households being concentrated in Europe; the Euronews monthly outreach exceeds 145 million people. Accordingly, it is unacceptable that a key European news broadcaster, or even a version of it in one language, presents facts in a dubious way, especially when it comes to the war in Ukraine. This is a responsibility that costs thousands of Ukrainians their lives.

"Now is the time for as many people as possible in the world to learn more about Ukraine, its history, its European identity, its shared values and role in the modern world. We count on your support and believe in the bright future of Ukraine, on which the future of the whole world directly depends," the open letter says.

At the same time, the authors of the letter call on all concerned journalists, public organization representatives, and the media community from around the world to join the signatories of the open letter. You can do so by sending a request to prgroup@1plus1.tv.

On June 15, the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting appealed to the Euronews management with a request to reconsider their stance on Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The NCTRB noted that the content of the Russian language edition of the broadcaster "contains deviations from journalistic standards and promotes Kremlin narratives."