This is the basic role and responsibility that media should fulfill as the “fourth branch of government,” and TVi does it well. But this runs contrary to the authoritarian oligarchy envisioned by President Viktor Yanukovych and his crony backers.  

It should also not surprise anyone that the seizure of documents at TVi by tax officials happened despite repeated pledges not to touch mass media ahead of the October parliamentary election. Their words and pledges are worth nothing at this point.

Tax officials are likely to find violations at any company or investor that dares to swim in Ukraine’s muddy business waters. But instead of fixing the system through legislative reforms that would allow business to operate freely and “legally,” Yanukovych’s ruling coalition is busy polarizing voters with language laws and opening up loopholes for fellow cronies. 

Instead of starting their anti-corruption campaign by cracking down on multibillion-dollar tax evasion through offshore havens that are notoriously exploited by Yanukovych’s billionaire backers, officials focus “selectively” on opposition politicians and media that dare to speak the truth.

The warning signs came early after Yanukovych won the 2010 presidential election. Within weeks his team formed a ruling coalition by trampling on the Constitution. Within a half year, Yanukovych reshuffled the Constitutional Court.

It swiftly but unconstitutionally changed the constitution, granting Yanukovych more powers. A year later, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed in what the free world has condemned as a politically motivated show trial.

In a July 2012 report entitled “Sounding the Alarm Round 2,” U.S.-based Freedom House recalled its warning from a year earlier that “Ukraine under President Yanukovych … has become less democratic [and] if current trends are left unchecked, may head down a path toward autocracy and kleptocracy.”
“A year later, most of these concerns remain, and in some cases the problems have grown considerably worse,” Freedom House added.

Problems have certainly become considerably worse for TVi and independent media. In the bigger picture, the current alarm bells signal that Yanukovych’s rollback on democracy and media freedoms is scarily near completion, if the world and Ukrainians don’t put a stop to it.