This year the East-West International Forum in Switzerland was devoted to a question quite relevant for us, democracy in the world of mass media with specialists from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Chechnya taking part. Our country was represented by Anatoly Moskalenko, Director of the Institute of Journalism, Kyiv Shevchenko University, who shared his impressions of the forum with The Day.
A.M.: I was impressed that Ukrainian and Chechen topics dominated at the forum. Ichkeria was represented by Musa Muratov, editor of the Groznensky Rabochy newspaper who spoke about the horrible consequences of the recent war: one sixth out of 120,000 killed were peaceful prisoners at the filtration camps. In this regard necessary materials are being filed in Ichkeria for a future international trial in Hague of war criminals who currently occupy high posts in Russia’s government.
At the same time it proved that not everything is all right with freedom of expression in the Russian Federation itself. Regional mass media are exposed to an extremely strong pressure. A journalist from Irkutsk reported what he called a “Jesuitical mechanism of total control over the press.”
However, Belarus mass-media places first in tendentiousness. All non-state periodicals there have been called “dishonest” opposition forces. Rigid control by the authorities over the dissemination of information and a total state monopoly over electronic mass-media has been established there. The only real opposition newspaper, Svoboda, and Radio 101.2 have been closed down. The only true thing about the freedom of the press that Lukashenka proclaimed in 1994 is the fact that journalists are not being killed. So far.
The Day: Are there realistic ways to overcome the crisis with freedom of expression?
A.M.: In 1995-1997 the overwhelming majority of newspapers and television companies were bought by influential financial and industrial corporations. At first sight, this need not be viewed as a violation of democratic principles under market conditions. But now officials close to one corporation or another are using the mass media to accomplish their private political goals. In this way not state but narrow party interests are being served. All this creates a real danger for freedom of speech and democracy in East Europe. The only thing that can stop this are comprehensive state measures and, first of all, legislative action. We need a law on the mass media, on joint stock companies, and other things. The odious Belarus President can become first dictator after a possible revitalization of the so-called “triple pan-Slavic union”, in which “Papa” Lukashenka intends to unite Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and then Bulgaria along with Yugoslavia. By the way, he has already gone from just talking to working out a theoretical basis for such a union: the need to have a common economy, policy, language (Russian, of course), church (under the Moscow Patriarchate), and army have all been justified. Hence, we must carefully guard our independence and keep stressing that Ukraine is a large country with 52 million people. In our history we already have bitter experience of being a “younger brother.”
The Day: How do you assess the freedom of press in Ukraine?
A.M.: There is a real information threat in Ukraine, and not only external but an internal one. According to Oleksandr Chekmyshev, political analyst and press researcher, since 1995 the powerful Dnipropetrovsk clan growing around President Leonid Kuchma has caused a reaction by other politicians which has also been reflected also in the mass-media. The start signal was given by the President’s team. Late 1996, after broadcasting a story with Oleksandr Razumkov, a dismissed Kuchma’s advisor, one of the best information programs on the Ukrainian TV, Pisliamova, was taken off the air. The program was shortly returned the air, but it was not the same Pisliamova but more cautious one and without its previous acuity (which did not save it from shutting itself down on the eve of the 1998 elections). Vikna, one of the best information and analytical programs also died in late 1996. At the same time on UT-1 a new program appeared in which Zynovy Kulyk, then newly appointed information minister tried to express the official stance on various issues. However, this program also soon went belly up.
I worry that under conditions of dividing the Ukrainian information market into the spheres of influence of various political forces many papers, TV and radio programs do not bother about such things as improving their journalist skills, fighting for readers, or for profits. The journalists know they will get paid by someone or another anyway. And on the eve of the next presidential elections popular publications will be converted into campaign leaflets. Journalism is already losing the trust of readers because of this. Hence, we have to create a new type of mass media, which will foster the deepening of democratic processes in Ukraine and transform itself into a real fifth estate.






