Georgia switches off Russian TV

Military conflict over South Ossetia continues to escalate

MOSCOW -- As of Saturday, Georgia stopped broadcasting all Russian TV channels in its territory, as the military conflict between the two countries over Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia continued to escalate.

Alexander Lomaya, the secretary of Georgia's Council of National Security, explained the move as a response to an "information war" waged by Russian channels against Georgia.

Since the beginning of the conflict, Russian state-controlled channels, including Channel One, Rossiya and NTV, have relied on official government sources for their coverage, while independent broadcasters such as Ren-TV and RBC TV have provided more neutral coverage.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Russia's foreign ministry, Grigory Karasin, accused Western media of biased coverage of the conflict.

Speaking at a news briefing on Sunday, he said that Western media used "double standards" in covering the conflict.