Politics without taboos
Former National Television Company vice-president Andriy Shevchenko, ICTV general director Oleksandr Bohutsky , Svoboda editor Oleh Liashko are among the journalists and media managers who are running for parliament in the upcoming elections. Many people were surprised to see the famous journalist Olha Herasymiuk, general producer of the television and radio company Studio 1+1, among the top five candidates in the Our Ukraine bloc’s election roster. The Day asked Olha Herasymiuk to explain her decision.
“What is behind your decision to run for parliament?”
“I do not know what you mean by ‘many people’. Perhaps you should have asked the millions of my viewers and readers, and not the authors of some ‘critical reviews?’ Or simply go out on a city street or drive several dozen kilometers from the capital and ask people how they perceive me. Nobody can really call my daily work ‘politics’ in the sense that you are implying now. But I know what people will say. Together with them, using the resources of television and their civic capabilities, we are championing human rights, for the right of one and all to reveal the truth, for the right to call things by their real names without fear of consequences. People will tell you how many criminal schemes we have jointly unraveled and publicly exposed, how many people we managed to enlist in order to assist those whom the state couldn’t help or even harmed openly, and how many tragedies we managed to prevent. My team and I have been working for many years to build a viable civil society regardless of the regimes in power. In the name of this goal I will stomach all the silly accusations that I sometimes hear from people who, I am certain, confuse their professional duty with simple access to media resources, and therefore are tempted to write everything their hand is writing, but their brain does not stop to consider; or perhaps it does, but it still produces falsehoods. I will not go into more detail, because my professional team and I have always considered it imperative to do our job and not derive publicity from it. That way, there is no surprise. I entered the top five to continue this work. I am certain that people need this. And my ambitions are confined exclusively to this motive. Those who say that they are surprised either do not know me well enough or are not saying the entire truth. I assume that some people might now be having doubts, wondering whether they were wrong to believe that I needed nothing more than an honest profession. To them I will say: Thank you. I assure you: there are no personal motives, and you will see this.”
“How will you combine your participation in the election campaign and your job at the television channel, where you work as television host and general producer?”
“The question is how successful I have been over the past four months in fine-tuning the mechanism to make it operational. Now it runs like clockwork. All the managers are in place. Nobody needs to be prompted. There are rules, rights, and duties. This can be seen in our live broadcasts. This is a guarantee that everything can be combined if you approach your job professionally. This is difficult, but only grass grows easily.”
“As a journalist and channel manager you may face accusations of bias in connection with your decision to run for parliament. How do you plan to refute such accusations?”
“I do not plan to refute empty accusations in any way. We will only discuss facts. Everyone who makes such accusations will have to support them with facts. I guarantee that they will not be able to do this. The channel will soon announce a clear and explicit policy of cooperation between management and staff. It is being developed as part of a joint initiative. We will display decency and honesty in our deeds, not words. All these attempts to disrupt our progress in this direction will be foiled.”
“How do you evaluate the effectiveness of journalists’ involvement in politics in general?”
“Like I said, I evaluate it based on facts. Historically, this involvement was different and sometimes ended in tragedy. This is why I will necessarily make my evaluation known to you as soon as there is something to evaluate.”
