Information Theater Requires Professionals And a Clear Concept of Development

There are negative trends in Ukraine’s information theater of operations, increasing the threat to our national interests in the foreign policy sphere and harming Ukraine’s image abroad, concluded an October 31 session of the National Security and Defense Council (NDSC). The meeting dealt with measures to improve the nation’s information policy and uphold information security.

The national information space is in a nascent phase, has a fragmentary status, and low level of legal and physical protection, noted meeting participants. On the one hand, the situation threatens to leave the state out of the process of forming the global information society; on the other, there is an actual threat to national security.

It was further pointed out that Ukraine currently has no solid program for the construction of an information society or a legally enshrined concept of national information policy and strategy for its implementation. Our information infrastructure is developing slowly and there are problems relating to the protection of state administration and national defense data. The Ukrainian legal framework of social-information relations requires basic reform and modernization, despite the fact that thirty normative and legal documents have recently been enacted, dealing with precisely this sphere.

NDSC Secretary Yevhen Marchuk said at the briefing summarizing the meeting that the Council had adopted a draft resolution to be enacted by a presidential order. “The draft has no direct action clauses. The National Defense and Security Council makes framework decisions or issues instructions for the government or other structures. This includes the ratification of international conventions, joining them, and legislative initiative,” he stressed, adding that “today’s Ukrainian legal field suffices for making effective improvements in the situation.” Mr. Marchuk also informed listeners that separate sections of the documents will be available at www.rainbow.gov.ua even before the edict is signed, so people can share their ideas.

The Day posed the following question to some of the NDSC meeting participants:

Which problem in the subsequent development of the Ukrainian information theater is the most urgent in terms of national information security?

Ihor LUBCHENKO, chairman of the National Journalists Union of Ukraine:

The most pressing information security problem is the development of the nation’s information space. I think that, by doing so, we will solve a number of problems relating to information policy and security. Regrettably, its current status is difficult for many reasons, objective and subjective. By the development of our information space I mean an opportunity for every citizen of Ukraine to freely listen to the radio, watch television, read periodicals, and access the Internet. I also think that what is happening in the Ukrainian information space is aimed only at retarding its development. What kind of information security or progress in general can we have, considering that the Ukrposhta state postal enterprise is raising its costs 2.6 times, with regard to 70% of the Ukrainian periodicals? I see no logic or substance to such actions.

Vadym DOVHANOV, president of the National Television Company of Ukraine:

In my opinion, there is unfortunately no real concept of the development of the television and radio theater. None has been worked out in the decade of Ukrainian independence. This is truly a serious problem — I don’t mean all those political discussions focusing on the TV-radio space. Not very long ago, the General Assembly of the Television and Radio Association passed a resolution whereby Europe will switch over to the digital standard. We don’t know as yet about our response to it, so under the circumstances our development lags behind the world standard more with each passing day.

I think that we are in a situation of a dog chasing its own tail, because we adopted an atheistic course dating from the Soviet period. Attempts are being made to find a way out, but they have had no result.

We must give broadcasters the right to work out their own concepts, because government agencies are unable to do so. At present, we don’t know where we are, what we are doing, and this is a big problem. Contacts with people of the television industry show that even they do not understand what this industry is all about in Ukraine.

Of course, there are very many problems, so we face a dilemma: either we proceed to cope with these problems seriously or Ukrainian television will go down the drain, and it will then be hard to get it back on its feet.

Viktor NABRUSKO, president of the National Radio Company of Ukraine:

The main and the most pressing problem is protection of the nation’s information space, working out a normal and effective, nor just formal, transparent and comprehensible legal framework allowing television and radio companies and foreign investment to operate in our information space on lawful grounds. As for radio broadcasting, it needs relay network improvement, because most so-called Ukrainian radio stations have nothing to do with any kind of Ukrainian products. The main task is to put the legislative field in order. Another task is to start making our own national information products that will be able to compete on that field.

Borys KHOLOD, chairman of the Ukrainian National Television and Radio Council:

There are a lot of pressing problems. As for our independent agency, the NDSC meeting stressed that we must tighten control over television and radio companies in terms of their observance of the law. This also refers to the national product ratio which is 10-15% at certain such companies instead of the legally prescribed 50%; we must also tighten control over unlicensed products showing violence and so forth. Among other things, the meeting paid special attention to the performance of state television and radio companies, their place on the air, particularly those in border regions, primarily in terms of technical competitiveness. The NDSC meeting also broached the subject of the professional level and personnel training in our television and radio.