The French NGO "Reporters Without Borders" borders" (RBG) announced the launch of a new Russian-language information channel – "Svoboda News" – as part of its satellite package launched in March to "counter censorship and propaganda" in Russia, reported France Press, quoted by BTA.
According to a press release from the NGO, the new channel, which aims to "provide independent and reliable Russian-language news to audiences around the world every day," will include content from the Russian investigative media outlet Insider.
Other collaborations with "famous media and journalists" will be added to the "Freedom" satellite package presented in March by RBG in the European Parliament.
Svoboda's broadcasts, produced mostly by Russian journalists who had to go into exile after the invasion of Ukraine, are aimed at viewers in Russia as well as Russian-speaking audiences in neighboring countries such as Belarus and regions of Ukraine , occupied by Russian forces.
Currently, the package includes 11 radio and TV channels, including "Radio Sakharov" and "Tomorrow Belarus" – "a dynamic new news channel from Belarus, created as a result of the partnership between two independent Belarusian media outlets – "Euroradio" and "Malanka". The long-term goal is to create up to 25 such channels, according to AFP.
The project, financed by a French non-governmental organization, takes advantage of the broadcasting capabilities of the satellite operator "Utelsat" (Eutelsat). According to RBG, the programs will reach up to 4.5 million homes with satellite dishes in the Russian Federation and "about 800,000 in the occupied territories of Ukraine", notes AFP.