Media outlets should chart a pragmatic course in today’s media landscape, according to speakers at a webinar titled “The Evolution of Journalism and Media Literacy in Ukraine.”
Hosted by British think tank Chatham House, the event hosted two speakers: Taras Shevchenko, the deputy minister of culture and information oolicy of Ukraine, and Anna Korbut, academy associate at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program.
The main topics were strengthening editorially independent media outlets, combatting Russia’s disinformation campaigns against Ukraine, oligarchs’ control of the press, and the development of the state-funded public broadcaster, Suspilne.
Korbut, who recently authored a research paper titled “Strengthening Public Interest in Ukraine’s Media Sector,” argued that the shift to online news could be a blessing for smaller outlets who do not have wealthy backers.
“They are working to build more resilient and sustainable economic models, communities of audiences, brand identity, and the culture of paying for media products.” Korbut commented.
The researcher also highlighted “the emergence of local media organisations that offer a quality alternative to the local or hyperlocal media which either used to serve as mouthpieces for local authorities or local vested interests.”
“These include multimedia projects based in big cities like Tvoe Misto in Lviv or Nakipelo in Kharkiv, as well as some hyperlocal media which in the past couple of years have been seeking to transform into proper media outlets… to develop content in a more creative and interesting format.”
Meanwhile, Shevchenko assured the audience that the draft law on media regulation, widely seen as stagnating in parliament, was being given a lot of attention: “I joined the ministry in August last year, and I would say that this (current) period is the most active period for the draft law than any time in the nine months that I’ve been here.”
On the subject of Suspilne, which was founded in 2015 and known as UA:PBC until its rebranding in 2020, Shevchenko was keen to emphasize that, unlike Zurab Alasania, the former director of Suspilne whose contract expired earlier this month, he thinks that viewership numbers should become a more prominent metric of the project’s success than at present.
According to the available data for 2021, Suspilne (listed as UA: Pershiy) was the 19th most popular TV channel in Ukraine this year, picking up a measly 0.78% of viewer share.
“How big is the impact of the money and effort spent by international actors, our government and NGOs? This cannot be measured without (taking into account) ratings… I believe that the number of viewers matters. We cannot say that it’s a great project if people are not listening and watching these programs.”
When discussing the Ukrainian government’s recent decision to shut down three TV channels widely considered to be under the control of pro-Kremlin opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, Shevchenko said that international opinion on how to deal with disinformation has changed in the last seven years:
The deputy minister recalled that “any small measures that the Ukrainian government was taking (in 2014) were highly criticized by the international community and international organizations, (who said) that Ukraine should consider freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”
This stands in stark contrast to the largely positive reaction that followed the shutdown of Medvedchuk’s media outlets.
“To my mind, a lot has changed during the last seven years, after many western democracies faced Russian disinformation campaigns, propaganda and influencing of elections. They started working on countermeasures and reconsidering the balance between freedom of expression and national security”, he continued.
Shevchenko also took issue with people who, as he sees it, make perfection the enemy of the good in the Ukrainian media. Even high-quality outlets make mistakes and it’s not helpful to write them off as a result, he said.
“This black and white approach is not very positive in the long term perspective,” he said.
“Every day I read Ukrainska Pravda, or Liga.net. I think these media are pretty balanced and professional, with good standards. At the same time, when there are initiatives to identify mistakes or bad (false) material, they will still identify some in these media (outlets). Even these media have mistakes, which may not even be intentional. The approach to mistakes in Ukraine is different to western countries.”
Korbut had a similarly realist approach to tackling oligarch control of the press:
“I don’t believe that any laws or regulations can completely shut off the influence of oligarchs on media assets”, she said.
“I focus more on indirect components such as media literacy among audiences… the awareness of audiences about who owns the media channels, what their agendas are and why they are promoting this agenda so that at least the audience is aware of what type of information they are consuming.”
