First, let us admit it: the powers that are being offered to Ukraine’s National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting are unprecedented.
Never in Ukraine’s independent history has a single state body had these kinds of powers – neither under the presidency of Leonid Kuchma (1994–2005, a high point of pressure on journalists) nor during the rule of Viktor Yanukovych (2010–2014, when he fled the country after the Maidan revolution).
Indeed, when Yanukovych introduced the so-called ‘dictatorship laws’ to quell mass protests in January 2014, Ukrainian journalists were outraged. These laws sought to restrict the work of news agencies that were not officially registered (which was the case for many at the time), and block websites found to contain ‘illegal’ information.
Today’s draft media legislation includes similar proposals, plus more stringent provisions absent. These provisions could destroy the fragile balance of power between the media and government, which has prevented Ukraine from sliding into dictatorship in the past.
For example, during the Kuchma and Yanukovych years, the lack of state control over websites meant that the Ukrainian people had access to thousands of online publications opposed to their rulers. This created a basis for Ukrainian society’s resistance to attempts to usurp both power and the right to truth.
As for print media, few people realise that many Ukrainian public organisations publish newspapers and booklets without any official registration – Ukrainian legislation allows this. The new bill will prohibit it.
Danger of a state monopoly of the media
The media bill contains 282 pages and makes changes to dozens of laws – but from the point the bill was adopted, the Ukrainian public was given only 21 days to raise objections.
Today, only the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), supported by the European Federation of Journalists, openly opposes this bill. This is not surprising; most NUJU members are categorically against the state interfering in their activities.
But Ukrainian officials are skillfully using Russia’s war to shift public attention away from over-regulation of Ukraine’s media towards issues that have only become more controversial during war time, such as the use of Russian language on Ukrainian TV and radio.
However, the main danger lies in the creation of a state monopoly on the regulation of the media.
It comes at a difficult time for the country’s media, which has encountered interference by the Ukrainian authorities since the start of the Russian invasion. Ukrainian television has been practically monopolised by the state, with one programme broadcast on all central news channels, the United Marathon.
The exceptions were the Pryamyi, Espresso and Channel 5 channels associated with former president Petro Poroshenko, which broadcast their own “information marathon” – until a presidential decree forced them to switch to the United Marathon. It should be noted that Poroshenko, who lost to Zelenskyi in the 2019 elections, is widely seen as a possible competitor to the current president.
Then, in April, the Poroshenko-linked channels were removed from the cheapest digital television package in the country. (The channels associated with the former president were withdrawn from online broadcast on the pretext of Poroshenko’s “excessive narcissism”.)
However, no matter how much the Ukrainian authorities would like to, the TV channels and websites associated with Poroshenko cannot be completely shut down – it is impossible to accuse them of being pro-Russian.
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