Ukraine: The Media - 10.11.02

 

The State of the Media in Ukraine

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Briefing

Panelists:
Yevhen Hlibovitsky, Senior Correspondent, 1+1 Television, Kyiv.

Julia Mostova, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, Kyiv.

Andriy Shevchenko former News Anchor and Senior Correspondent, Novy Kanal, Kyiv. Resigned in protest over censorship last month.

Roman Skrypin, Anchorman and Editor, STB television, Kyiv.

The panelists stated that the first years of 1990s good for journalism, but since 1995, things have grown steadily worse. The murder of Heorhiy Gongadze in 2000 was a wake-up call.

The government regularly gives journalism establishments “temniki,” lists of topics for the day’s news that either should be covered, should not be covered, or should be covered in a certain way, say, perhaps in a positive or negative light.

If the government does not like a reporter’s work they will not admit them to government events the reporter would like to cover.

The “last straw” occurred on September 16th of this year, when some media were directly censored. This has led to the creation of memorandum saying there’s censorship in Ukraine, which to date over 330 journalists have signed. It also created an organizing committee to create a journalist’s labor union to fight for freedoms, and created a strike committee composed of some of the most prominent Ukrainian journalists. The journalists say they want freedom of speech, which is guaranteed by the Ukrainian Constitution. These journalists have a tough relationship with their managers- they are labeled oppositionists, accused of selling out to the west for grants. 

Currently most media owners also own larger businesses. For this reason they don’t want to take risks with the government that would endanger their other businesses, and there is no motive to make news profitable.

Julia Mostova said that the hope is that is that as the economy develops, advertising will make media profitable and more independent.

Journalists need support from the west in a variety of forms: investment, and foreign governments taking up the cause of Ukrainian journalists 

Also discussed was how Ukrainian society will react to the petition- surveys show Ukrainians support the journalists but Ukrainians tend to protest silently rather than hold large demonstrations.

The speakers said that while many of their goals coincide with those of the political opposition, the journalists are not politically motivated: they want to practice their profession to the best of their ability as they should be allowed to do. They leave their politics at home, they emphasized. 

Reported by Anne Murrett, NCSJ Intern