New TV channel for disabled people

Inva-Media
TV – a digital television channel for disabled people – will be transmitted
from the satellite
Eutelsat
W7 (operated by the company Tricolour Television). The channel will be trialled
for approximately two months and will then begin broadcasting nationwide.

 

Vladimir Pruglo,
president of the Moscow Paralympics Committee, who also initiated the channel’s
creation spoke about its main thematic focus. According to him, the new channel
will broadcast programmes almost exclusively for disabled people and the
elderly and their relatives. It will transmit programmes about disabled people
in employment and education. These programmes will always include a “legal
hour” with experts who will provide legal advice and answer questions from
viewers.

 

Significant
air time will be devoted to sport; the organisers have promised to tell the
stories of disabled sportsmen and women. The channel will also present
programmes about possible holiday destinations and means of travel for disabled
people. Furthermore, Pruglo emphasised that the channel will not just be
educational but also entertaining. It will air talk shows, documentaries, and films,
as well as cultural video clips about disabled people showing how despite their
severe disability, these people actively participate in society and achieve success.

 

All
programmes will be broadcast with sign language and subtitles. Pruglo noted
that “in addition to the humanitarian and social aspects, the channel’s
programmes will encourage the involvement of people with disabilities in society
and the creation of jobs for them.” He also stressed that the aim of the
channel’s founders is not to arouse pity towards disabled people but rather, to
“narrow the gap” between those with disabilities and those without.

 

Inva-Media
TV will not employ only disabled people. The channel’s founders already employ
professionals and do not take into account journalists’ physical characteristics.
Oleg Smolin, vice president of the Society for the Blind and a minister in the
State Duma, believes that the new channel should provide information to the
government about the problems which disabled people face and educate society
about the achievements of those with disabilities. Smolin is certain that this
will help to change peoples’ attitudes towards disabled people.

 

Vladimir
Lukin, president of the Russia Paralympics Committee and Ombudsman for Human
Rights in Russia announced that Inva-Media TV has a board of trustees made up
of people with disabilities as well as those without. Lukin confirmed that
there will be no censorship of the channel by the board; the trustees will only
“discuss controversial themes”.

 

The
founders of Inva-Media TV are the Society for Disabled People, Society for the
Blind, Society for the Deaf, Russian Paralympics Committee and its regional
departments, members of the Public Chamber, the State Duma and the Federation
Council.

 

http://www.asi.org.ru/ASI3%5Crws_asi.nsf/va_WebPages/E0C0E342F639C717C325791A00514760Rus

 

Translated
by Lina Numan

 

 

 

 

 

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