It’s not like there is much room for a rollback, especially for a country whose official position is European integration.
The nation already ranks 126 out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders Press freedom index, a significant slide from its still dismal position in 2011-2012, when it was 116th.
Perhaps the most disturbing bell rang when the country’s biggest TV channel changed hands earlier this month.
It is now controlled by chemicals and gas tycoon Dmytro Firtash together with the president’s chief-of-staff Serhiy Lyovochkin, suggesting that the channel, which in the last half a year made a significant effort to become more balanced, will play to the president’s tune – at least until it suits the duo.
Meanwhile, one of the nation’s biggest news agencies UNIAN is on the brink of being shut down by its oligarch owner Igor Kolomoisky, following a censorship scandal this month.
A group of its editors was accused of placing false and/or paid-for stories, and censoring other materials. The agency is currently in limbo while the owner is deciding what to do with it.
The latest alarm bell rang when news magazine Focus started disappearing from newsstands across the nation after printing a number of critical stories dedicated to Viktor Yanukovych’s three years as president.
President Yanukovych and his loyalists are preparing for a dirty fight.
Stories also disappeared from the magazine’s website, but were later re-posted after a public outcry. The management later said that 20 percent of the print run had flaws, hence the recall.
Then, another censorship incident came in Brussels, where the president’s spokeswoman allegedly tricked a reporter who planned to ask Yanukovych about democratic rollbacks. She instead let a loyal journalist ask a toothless question.
Quite alarmingly, the EU officials hosting the press conference didn’t seem to interfere, perhaps, out of a desire not to irritate Yanukovych publicly.
Media experts are getting increasingly worried that all these incidents are a sign of things to come before the presidential election in 2015.
President Yanukovych and his loyalists are preparing for a dirty fight, they say. This is not a problem that the journalistic community can solve alone, even if it was united. The international community needs to join efforts if it has any interest in hearing more than one preprogrammed voice.
