The Cabinet of Ministers has confounded prophets warning of an imminent Soviet-style clampdown on state-owned broadcast media by appointing a respected, young professional from the private sector to direct the state’s television and radio complex.
Thirty-year-old Mykola Knyazhytsky, who will give up his position as director of Kyiv’s STB television channel, was named at a Sept. 24 Cabinet meeting in which ministers decided how to carry out a recent presidential decree that ordered the creation of a new umbrella company for the state’s broadcast media.
The new company, Ukrteleradio, follows a well-established formula of reasserting central authority over the state sector of the economy by turning all of the state’s holdings in a particular sector over to a new umbrella company. Other similar firms established by President Leonid Kuchma’s administration include Khlib Ukrainy for agriculture, Vuhillya Ukrainy for coal mining and Naftogaz Ukrainy for oil and gas.
Based on Kuchma’s track record, and numerous signs that the president is anxious to assure media support for his 1999 re-election campaign, most observers were expecting Ukrteleradio’s director to be plucked from the legions of old-guard paper-pushers in state positions whose loyalty to the president – or, at least, to the ruler of the hour – can be taken for granted.
Knyazhytsky, however, seems an unlikely instrument of the president’s will. The new appointee brings a record of independence and professionalism to the post.
At a packed Sept. 25 press conference, Knyazhytsky outlined his vision for Ukrteleradio, describing the company’s founding as the first step in the ‘creation of a Ukrainian BBC.’
Knyazhytsky said the restructuring of state radio and television represented an opportunity for Ukraine to develop a public broadcasting network based on Western models.
‘This is not a revolution in television and radio, but part of a progression … toward greater civic control over broadcast media,’ he said.
Knyazhytsky said the incorporation of Ukrteleradio would increase the professionalism of Ukrainian state broadcasting and promised there will be ‘no monopolies on information.’
‘The new model of public television will be for everyone – the president, the parliament and the people,’ he said. ‘The most important thing is that it functions professionally and is not a source of conflict.’
Given a free hand, Knyazhytsky could obviously do a great deal to improve state broadcast media. On the other side of the coin, there is very little anyone could do to make state broadcasters more servile to the presidential administration than they already are.
Nonetheless, many observers remained concerned that the Kuchma administration aims to consolidate control over broadcast media.
‘If Mykola Knyazhytsky will be able to remain the same independent journalist that Ukraine’s television viewers came to know, and does not make compromises while running an enormous state machine, it will be a chance for [Ukrainian] television to survive and transform into a normal, civilized structure and an opportunity for our political elite, which is suffocating in the absence of professional cadres,’ media commentator Natalia Ligacheva wrote in the daily newspaper Den.
Professionalism appears to be Knyazhytsky’s greatest asset, and the Ukrainian press has been unanimous in its appraisal of Knyazhytsky as a man who is serious about media enterprise.
‘By any standard, Mykola Knyazhytsky’s work is normal and professional,’ said Oleksandr Tkachenko, a widely respected journalist who worked with Knyazhytsky on the program Vikna (Windows) in the early 1990s and currently hosts the program Oblychya Svitu (Faces of the World). ‘It has been some time since I worked with him, but I think that’s a fair judgement based on what I’ve seen of his work since then.’
In the early 1990s, Knyazhytsky had a brief but noteworthy career as a television presenter, earning prominence as part of a new generation of energetic television professionals. By 1994 he graduated to full-time production, developing a stable of young, independent-minded journalists and devising several successful news and information programs, including Vikna, Vikna u svit (Windows to the World) and Intersport.
Knyazhytsky also has experience working with the U.S. government, developing an independent television production company under a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. That company produced Knyazhytsky’s Vikna programs for state channel UT-2 and later, most of its personnel and programs followed him to STB.
Knyazhytsky’s appointment is a clear break with the past, in which the government’s choices of state television executives were obviously political.
In his early career as a reporter, Knyazhytsky came into conflict with officialdom. He was fired by Ukrteleradio’s Soviet predecessor, Gosteleradio, for what Ligacheva called ‘reporting that was distinct in its willingness to present the facts as they were, not as they were spun by various television and state officials.’
In 1996, Vikna and Vikna u svit, both acclaimed for their fairness and objectivity, were taken off the air by state channel UT-2 after Knyazhytsky reportedly ran afoul of Information Minister Zynovy Kulyk.
Earlier this year, STB’s coverage of parliamentary elections distinguished itself from state television by its efforts to present a fuller political spectrum and in its willingness to give air time to opposition candidates.
Many observers were at a loss to explain why the presidential administration would make an appointment that seemed to run so counter to Kuchma tradition. At the Sept. 25 news conference, one journalist after another asked Knyazhytsky how he accounted for the government’s decision to appoint him given his history of conflict with Kulyk.
Knyazhytsky disputed accounts of his conflict with Kulyk, attributing his dismissal from UT-2 to ‘creative differences.’
But Knyazhytsky said he didn’t know who put his name in the hat. ‘I don’t know who within the administration gave the initiative,’ he said. ‘As far as I know there are specialists in the field who consult with the president.’
If Knyazhytsky does use his new post to support Kuchma politically, his reputation as an independent journalist would make him an invaluable asset. Unhesitant support from sophisticated television journalists such as Yevgeny Kiselev gave an important push to Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s 1996 reelection campaign. Because they were conversant in English, those journalists were also adept at selling the cause to foreign audiences.
As Ligacheva observed, the experience of Viktor Leshyk, outgoing president of Ukrainian State Television and Radio, shows ‘how difficult it is to withstand the pressures of lobbying’ by political elites.
Khnyazhytsky was sanguine about the prospects for maintaining the independence of state broadcast media. He pointed to what he termed an ‘improvement’ in the relations between the president and parliament as an indication that his tenure would not be a source of conflict. Others were less confident.
‘It is of course difficult for a state functionary to maintain independence,’ said Tkachenko, whose news commentary program Pislyamova left the airwaves prior to parliamentary elections this year because of political pressure. ‘It remains to be seen.’
The question of ownership in the new state broadcasting entity also promises to be a point of contention. At a press briefing after the Sept. 24 Cabinet meeting, Information Minister Zynovy Kulyk promised Ukrteleradio would remain ‘100 percent state-owned.’
Such statements, however, did not quell speculation that the creation of Ukrteleradio as a joint-stock company was the first move toward privatizing some portion of it. Anticipating press questions on that subject, Knyazhytsky stressed at his Sept. 25 news conference that ‘shares [in Ukrteleradio] will not pass into individual hands.’
‘The fate of the company is in the hands of the parliament,’ he said. He added that he expected to discuss that issue and others in upcoming meetings with legislative leaders.
Knyazhytsky said his immediate plans include a full audit of the company’s holdings.
In large part, the future of the massive state broadcasting company will hinge on its funding. Knyazhytsky acknowledged that it is ‘unrealistic’ in Ukraine to make public television and radio dependent on user license fees (the practice in Britain) or on some combination of viewer donations and corporate sponsorship (as is done in the United States).
‘Of course, in the case of public television, paying [user license] fees is ideal, but if we depend on customer payment, we will have the same problem of nonpayment that municipal utilities have,’ Knyazhytsky said.
According to Knyazhytsky’s design, the new corporation will derive revenue from advertising, but will also remain dependent to an extent on state budget funding.
‘To have genuine public television, public participation is required, but we’re still in the process of building a civic society,’ he added.
Although Knyazhytsky’s audience of journalists sounded uncertain that he would succeed in creating quality public broadcasting, many also sounded interested in what might be in it for them as they inquired about his plans for creating new news programs.
‘We’ll have to discuss that at a later date,’ Knyazhytsky said.
