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Today, on October 5, Taras Kozak, People's Deputy from the "Opposition Bloc", became the owner of corporate rights of the NewsOne TV channel. Non-affiliated with any faction People's Deputy Yevhen Murayev, whose father Volodymyr Muraev de jure was the final beneficiary owner of the channel, told about it.

According to the data of the Uniform State Register, the owner of LLC “News 24 Hours” (a legal entity of the NewsOne TV channel) still remains Swiss Joint-Stock Company MW Investment AG, and the final beneficiary owner is Volodymyr Murayev, father of Yevhen Murayev.

Meanwhile, Andriy Portnov, a former Deputy Head of Viktor Yanukovych’s Presidential Administration, who managed 100% of the shares of the NewsOne TV channel from August 27, stated that he had initiated the termination of the channel management agreement.

"I cannot influence the decision to change the ownership structure and I do not think it is correct to speak about its feasibility and possible consequences. In this connection, I initiated the termination of the NewsOne management agreement", - he wrote on Facebook .

"Starting from today, I will not have any more relation to the information, administrative or other activities of the channel", - he added .

He said that he would stay in touch with the channel management and continue his "judicial and international protection as long as he is in rhetoric oppositional to authorities".

According to the edition "New time of the country", Taras Kozak is a close associate of the Ukrainian politician, leader of the movement “Ukrainian Choice” and Vladimir Putin’s kum Victor Medvedchuk. Their brothers are business partners.

Media lawyer of the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law Maksim Dvorovyi suggests that the change of the channel owner may be due to the need to secure the NewsOne channel from possible sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council.

"Most likely, the change of the owner is related with the yesterday Appeal of the Parliament to the National Security and Defense Council regarding the imposition of sanctions on LLC "News 24 Hours", which is a legal entity of the NewsOne TV channel. According to the Law of Ukraine "On Sanctions", sanctions on legal entities registered in Ukraine can be imposed only if they are controlled by foreigners or stateless persons, or non-residents or if terrorist activity is funded through them. Probably, Andriy Portnov can be regarded as non-resident, and therefore this step can be made in order to withdraw the threat of imposition of sanctions on the TV channel", - commented Mr. Dvorovyi to "Detector Media".

It is to be recalled that the NewsOne TV channel changed the ownership structure in July 2018. The owner of LLC " News 24 Hours" (legal entity of the channel) became Swiss Joint-Stock Company MW Investment AG instead of People's Deputy Yevhen Murayev (the then member of the party "For Life"), and in the register, the final beneficiary owner was Volodymyr Murayev, father of Yevhen Murayev.

On August 27, 2018, Volodymyr Muraev, father of the People's Deputy Yevhen Murayev, transferred the management of 100% stake in the NewsOne channel to the former First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Portnov for a period of three years.

In September 2018, Yevhen Murayev announced the resignation from the party "For Life".

In August 2018, Tigran Martirosian, who was a host and executive producer of the channel, quitted from the NewsOne TV channel.

On September 20, the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting appointed an unplanned verification of the NewsOne TV channel because of statements by a number of hosts and guests of broadcasts about the war in Donbas, Andriy Parubiy, and autocephalous church. In the opinion of the Security Service of Ukraine, NewsOne broadcasts "statements that are clichés of Russian propaganda and contain signs of hidden call to aggressive action and programming viewers’ aggressive behavior".

Detector Media has researched few broadcasts of "Chronology of the day with Vyacheslav Pikhovshek" and "Subjective summary" of different hosts on the NewsOne TV channel. We found fakes, manipulation and retransmission of Russia’s messages.

On October 2, the General Director of the NewsOne TV channel Olena Rudik stopped cooperation with NewsOne. Instead of her, the position of CEO was taken by Yuriy Budiak, former Director of Information Agency "112 Ukraine".

On October 4, Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution by which approved propositions of sanctions against seven companies that own licenses of "112 Ukraine" and NewsOne TV channels. Parliament will forward its proposals to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), which can consider them and make their own decision on sanctions, which is further put into force by the Decree of the President of Ukraine .

The list of proposed sanctions consists of locking assets, cancelling licenses, financial restrictions, telecommunication restrictions and other sanctions".

The appearance of the resolution was preceded by the petition for termination of activities of "112 Ukraine" and NewsOne TV channels, registered on the site of Verkhovna Rada on September 20. And a week before, Head of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting Yuriy Artemenko, explaining the delay in National Council’s consideration of the prolongation of the digital licenses for "112 of Ukraine", said that a bill was being introduced to the Parliament, which would allow applying certain levers to the media impacted by a foreign resident.