DISINFO: Lithuania bans RT citing channel's bogus links to EU-sanctioned journalist Kiselyov
SUMMARY
Lithuania has banned the broadcast of five RT programmes, claiming that the channel is headed by the EU-sanctioned journalist Dmitry Kiselyov. In actual fact, Kiselyov has nothing to do with RT and heads an entirely different news organization called Rossiya Segodnya.
RESPONSE
The story advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying foreign governments as Russophobic, disdainful of press freedom, and unjustly targeting the Kremlin-controlled RT TV channel (formerly Russia Today). In a statement explaining its own move to ban RT broadcasts, the government media watchdog of Latvia (NEPLP) notes:
The owner and rightsholder of RT programmes is the TV-Novosti company, established 6 April 2005. The sole founder of TV-Novosti is the federal unitary state company Russian International News Agency "RIA Novosti." Since 20 December 2013, it has been in the process of liquidation. The liquidation committee is headed by Dmitriy Kiselyov, who has the exclusive right to act on behalf of the company without authorization. Therefore, according to NEPLP, he exercises de facto control over RIA Novosti, its assets, funds, its financial and economic resources, as well as its activities.
See here for further debunking by The Insider (in Russian).