March 2017: Radio Vesti's main broadcasting operation comes to an end. Source: Radio Vesti. Since 4 March, you can no longer tune into Radio Vesti — Ukraine’s only talk radio station —in Kyiv. Prior to this, nearly all of the radio station’s journalists resigned, as well as most of the station’s technical staff. Radio Vesti stopped its broadcast operation after a decision by the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, which regulates Ukraine’s airwaves. The management of the Vesti Ukraine media holding, which owns the station, believes that this decision is direct evidence of censorship in Ukraine. Everyone here is right, but, as always, no one is telling the whole truth.
On 3 March, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council refused to extend Radio Vesti’s broadcast license in Kyiv. Two weeks before, the National Council refused to issue the station a broadcast license for Kharkiv. Now only the residents of Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk) can listen to the station’s analogue broadcast — Radio Vesti had permission to broadcast only in three cities, elsewhere people listened online. But the station’s listeners won’t hear anything new: the station is broadcasting only news bulletins and programmes from its archive. Ukraine’s only talk radio station has more or less stopped working.
Tuning out
The National Council explained its decision not to extend Radio Vesti’s license by referring to the fact that the station had received four warnings. This, according to the opinion of the regulatory body, is evidence that the station is systematically violating Ukraine’s media legislation. It’s worth noting that it was the National Council that issued these warnings in the first place.
