The heads of the four major Ukrainian media groups wrote an open letter to their counterparts in Russia earlier this week, asking their Russian colleagues to be responsible with the words they use to describe the crisis in Ukraine.
"The extensive use by Russian media of such strong claims as those about fascism, anti-Semitism, ‘the hand of West’, which are rather unusual for modern deliberated journalism, have triggered Ukrainian media to respond to the Russian colleagues," a representative from the press office of the TV Channel Ukraine tells Mashable.
See also: 9 Essential Questions About Ukraine, Answered
It's gotten so bad in the eyes of the Ukrainians that one cable TV and Internet provider decided to stop broadcasting some Russian channels there due to their perceived bias.
The letter, which is embedded in full below, was signed by Anna Bezludnaya of Inter Media Group, Vladimir Borodyansky of Starlight Media, Fyodor Ogarkov of Media Group Ukraine and Alexandr Tkachenko of 1+1 Media. The letter, in part, reads:
We know each other for a long time, we are united by collaborative project, similar world views and all of us are madly in love with television. We believe and know that you also do not want war between two brotherly nations — Russians and Ukrainians.
Each of us is a patriot of our countries and on each of us lays particular responsibility at this challenging and volatile (dangerously explosive) moment. We ask you for open, balanced and objective coverage of events taking place today in Ukraine. We ask you to understand and support the position of all central Ukrainian TV channels and to consider responsibly every word. We have no rights to stir up enmity between the fraternal Russian and Ukrainian people, to broadcast unverified information or distort the reality.
The letter goes on to say that there “will be no winners, everyone will lose” if war breaks out, says “our populations, bounded with history, faith and blood will both lose.”
Russian media chiefs — Konstantin Ernst, CEO of Russia’s Channel One; RTR CEO Oleg Dobrodeev and Vladimir Kulistikova, NTV general director — responded in a letter of their own, which was posted on the Russian NTV website on March 3.
In their letter, they say it's difficult to imagine themselves “in the role of the Turkish sultan” because, the Russian media heads write, “we are with you — one and indivisible great Slavic television space, which has become an integral part of the daily lives of millions of citizens of Russia and Ukraine.” (See a translation of the letter here.)
“With regard to objectivity and responsibility, we would like to appeal to you a similar appeal. Let’s be objective and responsible, let’s weigh the words and restrain emotions, let’s not do this apart as has become a tradition in recent years, but together. It will certainly give an objective picture of reality. Which now for all [is] the most important thing,” the letter reads.
The Russians then accused the new government in Kiev of targeting their journalists operating in the country, rhetorically asking the Ukrainian media chiefs, “Does anyone is Russia threaten your reporters with physical violence for what they are aired and reported that, in their opinion, is happening there? No offense, but if you ask us a similar question, the answer will be disappointing.”
They then say Russian journalists operating there are under a constant threat of violence.
Still, the Russians write, “We believe that today, together we can do everything to prevent this from happening. We believe there will be peace between our two countries.”
Below is the full letter the Ukrainians sent to their colleagues in Russia:
Open Letter of the Leaders of Major Ukrainian Television Groups