My interview for radio 'PCJ Media' about press freedom in Ukraine

On December 25, 2010 at FM and shortwave radio networks in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan my interview in English was broadcasted. Topic: press freedom and media market in Ukraine. I gave this interview earlier for the December edition of 'Media Network Plus' program at the international radio 'PCJ Media'. Please, download or listen it from here. http://www.radio4all.net/files/kperron@gmail.com/3101-1-Media_Network_Pl...

Also you can read the text version of the interview below:

Anchor Keith Perron: We have an absolutely fascinating story from you, Paulette which is very interesting in fact.

Anchor Paulette MacQuarrie: Yes, Keith. Recently I had a good fortune to speak with Viktor Kovalenko from Ukraine. Viktor is a PR consultant and former journalist during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine six years ago. He shares some interesting insights about press freedom in Ukraine in the past six years under the watch of the hero of the Orange Revolution, former President of Ukraine Victor Yuschenko, and more recently under the anti-hero of the revolution, current President Victor Yanukovych.

Viktor Kovalenko: I can say that Viktor Yuschenko really granted the freedom of press, but the problem was (and now is) that majority of journalists here in Ukraine were not ready to continue to develop this, develop trade unions and associations, and they simply did not accept press freedom seriously. It was like – “OK, now we have press freedom and a good President, so we can relax”. This relaxed attitude resulted in postponing the creation of Public TV & Radio. So journalists somehow stepped back after the Orange Revolution and hesitated to push President Yuschenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko to set-up public broadcasting. That was a kind of mistake by Ukrainian journalists – as I see - to stop fighting for professional freedom further. Additionally, journalists actually do not fully see the strategic directions they could go.

That's why now, when Yanukovych and his team gained power, the majority of local journalists were shocked, and me too. Now, we are seeing censorship under Yanukovych rule, again. Media personnel suddenly realized that freedom of press is too fragile, that the country has a critical lack of truly independent media, journalism is not actually protected, and access to public information is highly restricted. So, journalists realized that all was fine in the past 5 years mainly because of the good will of “the good President Yushchenko”.

After the Orange Revolution Mr. Yuschenko stopped orders to journalists. And I can tell you that during his term he did not send any orders to journalists about what to do, and how to cover his activities. That is why journalists felt that they can criticize Yushchenko openly and sometimes they did it more than enough. They started to criticize not his wrongdoings or statements, but his ideology - trying to play more a political role than a role of media watchdogs.

Remembering the past times, in 2002 some PR persons close to Kuchma's administration decided to rule the media by sending out special orders to TV companies and news services. It were e-mails without signatures disseminated via public domains. In these orders that PR persons insisted that journalists should cover only positive news about Kuchma's administration and the government.

MacQuarrie: Oh, there was a word for that!

Kovalenko: Yes, journalists invented a slang word for this - “temnyky” (In Ukrainian language it means something in the darkness). That time I was a newscaster at Novy TV channel and we also received the one of first “temnyk”. I asked my editor to show me this. It was the printed copy of the e-mail without any signature, but with in-depth instructions which news in politics should be covered, and which – not. Everybody in the media understood that time that it is very serious, not a kind of joke. And our channel's producer was also very serious about this.

MacQuarrie: Do you anticipate that “temnyky” are coming again from Yanukovych?

Kovalenko: No, we have no “temnyky” from Yanukovych. But I understand that some persons close to the state authority may call to media owners and have very secret communications without letting journalists know about such activities. Because after that experience in 2002 when journalists stood up against “temnyky” the technologies of ruling media became more sophisticated. They can control the media owners and get the same result. And this is difficult for developing press freedom, because without any proof of censorship it is hard to journalists to protect their rights and to show to the society that they have problems.

We have already saw two significant journalistic protests against editorial censorship in news departments of popular 1+1 ans STB television channels some month ago. Journalists accused editors that they suspiciously selective in topics, and execute hidden orders from the owners, which are dependent from the new state authority. But journalists lost with these protests because they do not know how to effectively protect their interests. Our journalistic trade unions and associations are small, fragmented, and do not have enough finances. Moreover, journalists in Ukraine are very dependent now on the media owners - especially in this financial crisis and due to the high unemployment rate. This motivation can play an important role, and majority of journalists will think many times before going to the protest because they need... to eat something.

Another important aspect why press freedom in Ukraine is very fragile – it is connected to European or American media attitude towards Ukrainian market. During the past 20 years, no significant international media houses came to Ukraine to show good standards in action, to motivate local media and the development of journalism. The exception was with Ronald Lauder's Central-European Media Enterprises which owned the popular national TV Channel 1+1, but sold it in 2008 to one of Ukraine's billionaires. There were several small experiments with tabloids by some European media houses – but all of those projects were closed 2 years ago, due to the global financial crisis. Ukraine urgently needs that Western media experience, but unfortunately American and European media houses did not still come to Ukraine. They came to the Eastern Europe, Baltic countries and Russia, but not to Ukraine. I can not explain this situation.

The current Presidential administration of Ukraine has promised to create public TV and radio instead of the state broadcasting company, and is making some steps toward this. Let us see if it would be successful, or it may be just the change in the title of the broadcaster. As a former TV journalist I really want for Ukraine to have public TV and radio, we actually need this. In our post-Communistic transitional society we urgently should have an independent voice, and this voice should be reachable in the every corner of the country. It will help to develop democracy and freedoms. I think Yanukovych is trying to be a good President, and he stated that he wants to do this (public broadcasting). Let us give him a chance.