РОЗДІЛ 1 ДЕРЖАВНЕ МОВЛЕННЯ: ВІД ПРОПАГАНДИ ДО АДМІНРЕСУРСУ Svitlana Ostapa, Vadym Miskyi, Ihor Rozkladai under the general editorship of Natalia Lyhachova Svitlana Ostapa, Vadym Miskyi, Ihor Rozkladai Miskyi, Ihor Rozkladai Svitlana Ostapa, Vadym PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN UKRAINE: History of Creation and Challenges PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN UKRAINE: HISTORY OF CREATION AND CHALLENGES IN UKRAINE: HISTORY OF CREATION PUBLIC BROADCASTING 1 2 Svitlana Ostapa, Vadym Miskyi, Ihor Rozkladai under the general editorship of Natalia Lyhachova PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN UKRAINE: History of Creation and Challenges UDC 654.19 О 76 Production of this brochure was made possible with the financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Government of Sweden. The content of the brochure is the sole responsibility of Detector Media NGO and does not necessarily reflect the po- sition of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, or the Government of Sweden. S.V. Ostapa, V.V. Miskyi, I.Ye. Rozkladai under the general editorship of Natalia Lyhachova. О 76 Public broadcasting in Ukraine: History of Creation and Challenges. — Kyiv: VIOL PRINTING HOUSE LLC, 2018. — 168 p. Fig. Media experts directly involved in the establishment of the Public Broadcasting in Ukraine reveal the history of the transformation of state broadcasters into the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. It was a path from advocating for the legislation necessary for the formation of a legal entity and its first steps. This brochure also describes the main challenges faced by the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine at the end of the first two years of its operation. UDC 654.19 © Detector Media NGO, 2018 © S.V. Ostapa, V.V. Miskyi, I.Ye. Rozkladai, 2018 Natalia Lyhachova-Chernolutska, Head of the Detector Media NGO, Chair of the Independent Media Council December 2004, on the threshold of the third round of presidential elections which Viktor Yushchenko would eventually win, in the apartment of Tetiana Lebedieva - the head of the Independent Asso- ciation of Broadcasters - a meeting of several "adherents of Ukraini- an public broadcasting" took place. Those included the then Chair- man of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Freedom of Speech Mykola Tomenko and public figures, in particular Valerii Ivanov, I, Oleksandra Chekmysheva, and Dmytro Kotlyar. We believed that after the predicted Yushchenko's victory a window of opportunity for the creation of Public Broadcasting in Ukraine will open, and we gathered to develop an action plan. According to this plan, in Janu- ary 2005, the Coalition of public organizations – "Public Broadcast- INing" – was established. The coalition developed a number of draft documents on editorial policy, financial management, and other aspects related to the activities of the future public broadcaster. At the same time, Oleksandr Tkachenko, who had resigned from the post of the head of the Novyi Kanal TV channel and was obviously hoping to create and public television and become its head, began to develop the alternative concept. The Coalition and Oleksandr Tk- achenko's group were cooperating for some period of time. After the elections, Serhii Pravdenko – representative of the new opposition, who was not making it a secret that he wanted to make history as the person who gave "the green light" to the Ukrainian public broadcasting in the parliament – became the head of a spe- cialized committee in the Verkhovna Rada. Therefore, a working group which consisted of parliamentarians from different factions and members of the public – media lawyer Taras Shevchenko and your author – was created under the Committee. A compromise bill prepared by the group was approved during the first reading in the Verkhovna Rada; however, at the second reading, which was held on December 22, 2005, it was voted down, primarily by the 4 INTRODUCTION presidential faction "Nasha Ukraina". "Hawks" in holding in your hands? It was done for the sole the circle of Viktor Yushchenko blocked the crea- purpose: not only to show the complexity and tion of public broadcasting, having convinced the quantity of "episodes" on the way to the crea- President of the need to preserve the state media. tion of Public broadcasting, but also to mention We were rigidly criticizing Yushchenko for the many people, their efforts, and the emotions ac- lack of political willpower to create the "National companying this process. I would like to empha- Public Broadcasting Company". One of my arti- size: those were very different people with very cles of that time was entitled "Are they intending different motives; for example, a contribution to to hammer the nails of propaganda with the help these difficult processes was even made by such of Pershyi TV channel?" an ambiguous figure as Eduard Prutnyk, who was heading the State Committee on Television and Despite this, there was an attempt to reform Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine at the time of Ya- the then UT-1 TV channel: at the beginning of nukovych's premiership in 2007-2009... 2005, the channel was headed by Taras Stetskiv, whereas Andrii Shevchenko, Kateryna Kyrychen- Dramas, desire, as well as willingness or un- ko, Vasyl Samokhvalov, and others were engaged willingness of certain people, lie behind every in the organization of information broadcasting. matter-of-fact line of official chronology, which, Ihor Kulias conducted trainings on journalistic eventually, became the foundation of what is standards for all employees engaged in the pro- now the “National Public Broadcasting Compa- duction of news at the UT-1, and the newsroom ny” PJSC. "When the desirable becomes possible" was supposed to work according to the principles - that is how, in my opinion, this result can be we had developed within the "Public Broadcast- called. This is what makes the process of crea- ing" coalition. But eventually, under the pressure tion of the Public Broadcasting Company in of "hawks" from the Yushchenko's team, the team Ukraine an excellent example of a path from an of reformers of Pershyi TV channel was forced idea to reality, from opposition to support, from to leave... The process of the creation of public the efforts of a small group of romantics to the broadcasting in Ukraine was once again on pause everyday work of thousands of people... And let for the next ten years. this path have such an end that other authors of books about public broadcastings in Ukraine Why did I bring back these almost nostalgic could later call it a bright illustration of the memories in the preface to the "initial" history real reform which took place for the benefit of of Public Broadcasting in Ukraine you are now Ukrainian people. 5 SECTION 1985 - 2005 6 STATE BROADCASTING: FROM PROPAGANDA TO ADMINISTRATIVE RESOURCE 1985 Part 1: • A possibility without 1995 understanding 1995 Part 2: 2000 • The first attempts Part 3: 2005 • A dream that has not been fulfilled 7 SECTION 1 STATE BROADCASTING: FROM PROPAGANDA TO ADMINISTRATIVE RESOURCE Ihor Rozkladai, media lawyer at the Media Law Institute, the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, expert on the Reanimation package of reforms he idea of public broadcasting appeared almost a century ago, from the formation of a commercial project of a non-commercial broadcaster at the beginning of the radio era, which we know as the BBC, formation of broadcasting in Germany after the World War II, and the transformation of the Soviet propaganda resource into successful public broadcasting services, which were called public due to historical circumstances in Ukraine. The main forces powering state/public broadcasting in- clude independence, high quality standards, the obligation to provide financing through various models and, of course, trust, when during a crisis, citizens know for sure where to obtain exact and reliable information. Among the members of the Council of Europe, Ukraine is de jure and de facto the last one to create public broadcasting. There are several reasons for this: the fact that in the early 90s there was the lack of experience and understanding of the fact T that there can be something which is neither private nor public; that politicians, in particular, new democratic forces, should abandon the idea of state television as such; the continued interest of politicians (both during the regime of President Kuchma and after it) in using television and radio resources for their own interests, especially during elections; the myth that state broadcasting will necessarily adhere to state-oriented and patriotic statements, and a considerable interest of journalists, editors, and other workers in an old haunt which does not presuppose competition. Since the adoption of the Law on Television and Radio Broadcasting in 1993, all attempts to create public broadcasting were a complete fiasco mainly because of these factors. Current opponents of the reform continue to spread the arguments that were made 25 years ago with the same persistence. In order to really understand the reasons why Ukraine repeatedly failed to im- plement public reforms, it is necessary to understand the specifics of the media space in Ukraine and the process of its formation since the fall of the USSR. Figu- ratively, we can identify several stages of development (and therefore attempts to create public broadcasting), which are globally associated with the following three revolutions: the Revolution on Granite of 1990, the Orange Revolution of 2004, and the Revolution of Dignity of 2014. It is the elimination of non-democratic regimes that opened up a window of opportunity for the reform, and only the last revolution provided the biggest margin for the completion of the reform, but still did not make it possible to make this reform the way it was supposed to be. 8 A POSSIBILITY WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING (1985-1995) Part 1 A POSSIBILITY WITHOUT PART 1 UNDERSTANDING (1985-1995) ince the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet within a particular media or as an addition to Sgovernment established state censorship, it.