IVAN GAYVANOVYCH, KIEV
IS MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
Against the background of social disappointments and political failures that have been taking place in Ukraine during Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency, the freedom of speech is considered to be one of the main achievements of the Orange Revolution. President Yushchenko likes to mention that in his speeches telling Ukrainians about the diffusion of democratic values in the country under his rule.
There are no instructions of the Presidential Secretariat any more that were sent under former President Leonid Kuchma to the mass media how to cover (or hush up) various political events. A whole number of TV talk shows compete with each other discussing the hottest issues. And both the opposition party and the party in power are mentioned equally in the mass media.
At the same time, the surface political pluralism and freedom hide the dark side of the Ukrainian mass media.
Several days ago a scandal broke out in a live popular political talk show. The MPs from the opposition Party of Regions came to the studio, where Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko was announced as an exclusive guest, and started to set the tone for the programme. The journalists, who had been invited to that programme, set their face against the MPs’ arbitrariness. In the hot discussion it turned out that anchorman Savik Shuster had taken into account the Premier’s ultimatum that the oppositionists should not be present in the studio and asked the Party of Regions MPs to come by the programme’s very beginning when the Prime Minister could not leave the studio. True, the anchorman said that he had invited the Premier’s opponents making a concession to the Party of Regions that also issued the ultimatum that its representatives should be in the studio.
As it turned out Savik Shuster had come to the headquarters of the Party of Regions before each programme. The TV channel, making the popular talk show, belongs to a famous member of the Party of Regions.
It is not unusual that In Ukraine political parties seek to take control of mass media. This problem is not limited to only one TV channel as well as a threat to the freedom of speech is not posed by only one political force that is in opposition to the government now. The managers of the mass media are aware of the telephone calls in the editorial offices (of, above all, the TV channels) when the government press service dictates the journalists how to cover an event. They are also aware of the instructions given by the Presidential Secretariat whom to invite to talk shows or who should participate in press conferences.
Meanwhile, the biggest danger to political media undermining the profession of journalism has been provoked by journalists themselves. The instructions by the Presidential Secretariat were replaced by sponsored materials in the mass media.
I was amazed that a firm within a Ukrainian TV holding company, like an advertising company, officially offered to place sponsored materials in the news programmes. The only difference is that advertisements, unlike sponsored materials, are designated accordingly.
And I was also surprised that in one Ukrainian region the journalists insisted that a politician’s press service should pay them for covering his press conference.
The radio and Internet news, the newspaper articles and interviews, invitations of guests to the TV studios, the TV news and even mentions of something by the leading information agencies are bought by the government officials as well as by the oppositionists. Politicians or political forces’ willingness to pay for this “information partnership” determines if the information about them goes on the air or is published in the press.
It is very difficult to withstand this extortion, as everybody makes payments. Of course, nobody is forced to pay, but, otherwise, a “miser” will be ignored.
The official presidential campaign starts in Ukraine on October 19, which means that mass media will become still more corrupted.
Ivan Gayvanovych is a Ukrainian journalist, laureate of the competitions “MASS MEDIA – for civil society», «Golden Era of the Ukrainian TV”.
October 14, 2009
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