January 23, 2013

(JTA) — Vadim Rabinovich, the Ukrainian owner of the Jewish international TV channel JN1, said unnamed Ukrainian officials were trying to control his station following alleged threats and a police inspection. 

The Kyiv Post weekly on Jan. 21 quoted a statement by the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress – an organization headed by Rabinovich – as reading: “A senior official from the current government visited Rabinovich on Jan. 17 and, threatening harassment, including physical violence, demanded that the JN1 television channel be transferred to them within a week.”

Rabinovich reportedly has complained about this issue to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine.

Alexander Zanzer, JN1’s Brussels bureau chief, told JTA that Ukrainian police recently inspected the Ukraine offices of JN1 in Kiev, “but it is not sure who is ultimately behind this newfound interest in us.” He added: “It would seem like someone decided they could use JN1 to exert control. I am not sure who it is but we are speaking out against it before it becomes more serious.”

Co-owned by Rabinovich and his fellow Ukrainian Jewish philanthropist and businessman Igor Kolomoisky, JN1, or Jewish News One, began broadcasting in 2011. It now has three offices, in Brussels, Paris and Kiev. 

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