The public prosecution office of the Crimea opened the criminal case over the fact of termination of the media holding ATR on the peninsula. Criminal case is opened on Art.171 of the Criminal Code – resistance to legal professional activities of journalists.

The General Prosecutor Office of Ukraine states: “On the territory of occupied Crimean peninsula the right to freedom of speech, to freedom of expression, guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, is systematically violated, the Crimean independent media are eliminating.

The General Prosecutor Office admits that the resistance to legal professional activities of journalists by unlawfully created authorities of occupied peninsula itself led to the termination of TV and radio broadcasting of mass media, which is a part of media-holding ATR (Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR, children’s Crimean Tatar TV channel Lale, FM – radio “Meydan”, “Leader” and the Internet-edition of “15 minutes”).

ATR was the only TV channel in the world, broadcasting in Crimean Tatar language. The Stop Censorship Movement categorically criticizes the termination of TV channel ATR and other mass media of the holding.