ATR Channel

ATR (Cyrillic: АТР) is a Ukrainian TV Channel whose target audience is Crimean Tatars. It was broadcasting in Crimea, Ukraine from 1 September 2006 until 1 April 2015 when it was forced to shut down by occupying Russian authorities after failing to register under Russian law. Mid-June 2015 the channel resumed its broadcasting in mainland Ukraine and is since then located in Kiev. When located in Crimea most of the channel's programs were in Russian language (60%) with 35% in Crimean Tatar and 5% in Ukrainian. The channel uses Tamga as its brand logo).

The channel began to broadcast on 1 September 2006. Since 2012 it had been available also via satellite. ATR founder and owner is a businessman Lenur İslâmov.

ATR ran strongly pro-Ukrainian coverage of the events leading up to the 2014 Crimean referendum that led to the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia. After the annexation ATR received a formal warning over "extremist activities" and although is stayed fairly critical, it avoided terms like "annexation" and "occupation".

In 2015 the channel changed its programming; it cut political talk shows and news and instead focused on cultural programs.

On 26 January 2015 OMON riot police officers blocked the channels building and conducted searches as part of a criminal investigation into pro-Ukrainian rallies a year before.

After the meeting with the channel’s top managers of 21 March 2015, referring to the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov stated that ATR “gives a hope for the return of the Crimea in Ukraine – which is silly – and it will never happen”.

...
Wikipedia