The Media Program in Ukraine Weekly Briefer

Hot Media Sector News

President Zelensky holds Off-the-record Meeting with Journalists
June 7 – President Volodymyr Zelensky held an off-the-record meeting with journalists at his Zalissia countryside residence in Kyiv region on June 7. Each attendee received a personal invitation, and the meeting itself was not announced publicly.
 
The format of the meeting was a Q&A session: Zelensky answered journalists’ questions while everyone sat on bean bag chairs in the forest. Attending journalists published photos of the meeting and shared their impressions through social networks, but did not talk about the details of their conversation with the president, since the meeting was held in the off-the-record format.
 
According to Svitlana Ostapa, chair of the UA:PBC Supervisory Board, Zelensky promised to organize a press conference to review the results of his first 100 days in office.
 
The chief of Detector Media, Natalia Ligachova, revealed that a large contingent from the presidential administration, including Zelensky's press secretary Yulia Mendel, was in attendance. "I received quite a lot of information about the motives, actions and the new president’s team from this meeting. Almost all the presidential administration’s staff was present,” Ligachova said. “We were able to discuss long-standing issues with them and they were all prepared to have a constructive dialogue. We received their contact details as well as assurances that communication with both journalists and civil society representatives will be among their priorities,” Ligachova added. Ligachova said she had both positive and negative reactions about Zelensky’s answers to the questions posed by colleagues and herself.
 
Yevheniy Kuzmenko, a journalist with online media Censor.net, shared his mixed impressions of the meeting. “I'll only say that skepticism and anxiety did not diminish. We got to a better understanding of the logic of the commander-in-chief. But a single question remains without response: what has put him in this [presidency]?! " Kuzmenko wrote in Facebook.
 
Bihus.Info journalist Maxym Opanasenko raised a rhetorical question about how the presidential administration decided which journalists to invite to the session. "According to which principle were journalists invited to Ze? By alphabetical order? By the audience they work for?” Opanasenko wrote. Ligachova had the same concern. "I have my own thoughts about the list of invitees, but I do not think it would be ethical to discuss that," she wrote.
 
The Mirror Weekly reviewed the photos the  meeting participants posted in social networks, and concluded that the following journalists were among the attendees: Sonya Koshkina (https://lb.ua/), Oleksandr Martynenko (https://interfax.com.ua/), Serhiy Shcherbyna (https://www.rbc.ua/), Olesya Batsman (https://gordonua.com/), Yegor Benkendorf (former director general of https://112.ua/), Vasyl Holovanov (https://newsone.ua/), Serhiy Tomilenko (head of the National Union of Journalists), Natalia Ligachova (Detector Media), and Svitlana Ostapa (chair of the UA:PBC supervisory board). 
 
More in the Mirror Weekly in Ukrainian. 
 
Media Movement’s Appeal to President Volodymyr Zelensky
June 6 – The “Media for a Conscious Choice” Media Movement, uniting more than 70 Ukrainian media companies and media NGOs, published an open appeal to President Volodymyr Zelensky on the occasion of Journalists’ Day, urging him to consider a number of key media reforms. Detector Media published the statement’s full text.
 
The statement suggests that seven steps should be implemented:
 
Step 1. Accountability
The Media Movement calls on Zelensky to regularly report to citizens about his actions as president of Ukraine. In particular, this means not only communicating through social networks, but also holding regular meetings with the media, quarterly press conferences, and interviews with journalists working for a wide range of media and representing diverse audiences.
 
Step 2. Fighting impunity
The Media Movement calls on the president to take personal control over the investigation into murders and attacks against journalists, including those occurring in the occupied territories, and, in accordance with the president’s authority, that he takes all measures to stop impunity for these crimes.
 
Step 3. Public broadcasting
The statement stresses the importance of preserving the independence of Ukraine’s public service broadcasting company so that it can withstand undue influence, including financial pressure.
 
Step 4. Media reforms
The Media Movement calls on the president to support media reforms that are critical for Ukraine’s emergence as a democratic state. The list of these reforms was developed by the media group of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR). In particular, it calls for the National Council for TV and Radio to bring Ukraine up to European standards in audio-visual media regulation. The media reforms called for also include increased protection of journalists, improved legislation for financial transparency in media, the introduction of voluntary registration of online media, and support for creating a sustainable co-regulation mechanism within the media industry.
 
Step 5. Media de-oligarchization
Ukraine needs to implement effective methods to counteract pressure on the media from oligarch owners and politicians as quickly as possible, the statement says. To achieve this, it is necessary to adopt and implement a series of media reforms, in particular the Law on Audio-visual Services, as elaborated by the media community. The statement also calls on the president to demonstrate clear political will and withstand all attempts by oligarchs to manage media content.
 
Step 6. Independence of national regulator
The Media Movement calls on the president to appoint qualified individuals to the media regulatory body. Those individuals should be independent from oligarch-controlled groups and media owners, and those appointed should be ready to implement the law for the benefit of the general public - viewers and listeners.
 
Step 7. Information security
The statement appeals to the president as the head of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine to guarantee the protection of Ukraine’s information space from hybrid aggression. The price for a deal with Russia on ending the war and liberating the occupied territories should not be the loss of information sovereignty or pulling Ukraine into the orbit of Russian media and the worldview they espouse.
 
Note: On February 5, the media movement "Journalists for a Conscious Choice" was launched in Ukraine. It was created to provide citizens with the opportunity to elect a president and parliament on the basis of full and reliable information. Leading Ukrainian media - TV channels, radio stations, print and online outlets, as well as media-support NGOs, became members of the movement. Signatories to the Media movement memorandum were UA:Pershy (UA:PBC), Ukrainian Radio (UA:PBC), Hromadske Radio, Ukrinform News Agency, Interfax-Ukraine News Agency, Liga.net, Mirror Weekly.Ukraine, Novoie Vremia (New Time), Censor.net, Channel 5, Ukrainian Week, Opinion, regional media, civil society organizations, Independent Media Council, Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, Internews Ukraine, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Suspilnist Foundation, Independent Association of Broadcasters, Donetsk Institute of Information, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, Center for Human Rights “Zmina”, and other organizations and journalists – in total over 70 contributors.
 
More on Detector Media in Ukrainian. 
 
President’s Spokesperson Promises Openness to the Media
June 4 – The Press Secretary of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Yulia Mendel, said in an interview with iod.media that journalists can count on frequent communication and briefings about the activities of the head of state. "The idea of ​​openness of a spokesperson comes from the position of the president, who does not want his media engagement to be treated as permanent heroism," Mendel said.
 
"In recent years, the publicity of politicians has acquired the form of a caricature: they cut ribbons at kindergartens or school openings, and they constantly appear in front of TV cameras, because we know people vote for those whom they recognize. But since Zelensky has spent his life on television, he has no need to be a TV hero," Mendel added.
 
She said she would be on the president's team as a “tool for communication with the media."
 
Detector Media wrote that on June 3, Zelensky gathered journalists for his first briefing, which was supposed to be open to all journalists and to be held at the presidential administration’s entrance. No accreditation was required. Eventually however the briefing was moved inside the building. Iryna Pobedonostseva, who is in charge of information policy at the presidential administration, explained that the briefing at the entrance was canceled at the last moment by the administration’s security office. As a result, the majority of media representatives who came to the presidential administration building for the briefing were not allowed to attend the event.
 
Note: President Zelensky appointed Yulia Mendel as spokesperson on June 3. As a journalist, Mendel worked for ICTV, Espreso.TV, 112 Ukraine and Inter TV channels. Mendel became the first Ukrainian journalist to win the World Press Institute fellowship. She was The New York Times correspondent in Ukraine, and she contributed to Politico Europe, VICE News, CNBC, New Eastern Europe, World Affairs Journal, and Spiegel Online. She also worked as communications consultant at the World Bank. She graduated from the Warsaw Euro-Atlantic Academy (WEASA), and held internships at Lech Walesa Solidarity Program in Poland and THREAD at Yale University in the United States.
 
More on Detector Media in Ukrainian. 
 
Atlantic Council: Zelensky has a Golden Opportunity to Challenge the Oligarchs and Bring Real News to Ukraine's Airwaves
June 4 – The Atlantic Council published an article about current developments at the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC) titled “Zelenskiy's Golden Opportunity to Challenge the Oligarchs and Bring Real News to Ukraine's Airwaves.” Written by Janek Lasocki, a former advocacy coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who now writes about Eastern Europe and the former USSR, the article itemizes an array of failures in the process of restructuring the former state-owned broadcaster into today’s public service broadcaster. Lasocki also touted the positive developments, including:
 

• New managers were chosen through a transparent competition;
• Organization-wide training brought with it a change in culture by teaching the values of public service broadcasting. As a result, UA:PBC is no longer subservient to government; and
• A number of new programs are testament to the broadcaster’s editorial independence, as well as an impressive new level of professional content production, including “Countdown,” “Our Money,” and “Schemes.” 

• Video or TV program;
• Radio program or podcast; and
• Article published in a print or online outlet.

 Applicants can submit the following types of media story: analytical pieces, explainers on the legalities of employment or reintegration of labour migrants, interviews, reports, and coverage of labour migration in a localized context for specific regions.
 
The main evaluation criteria include: the key idea and subject of the story must relate to labour migration from Ukraine to one of the four countries specified above, the publication is balanced and complete, and does not contain distortions of information.
 
The winner in the category “Video or TV program” will receive a prize of 4,500 UAH ($170), second place will receive 3,000 UAH ($111), and third place 2,000 UAH ($74). The winners in the other two categories will receive 3,500 UAH ($130) for first place, 2,500 UAH ($93) for second, and 1,000 UAH ($37]) for third place.
 
More on Detector Media in Ukrainian.
 
Ukraine’s Leading NGOs Learn the Power of Information at Social Change Communications Forum
May 30-31 - SHKALA (“scale” in English), a forum for social communications and behaviour change, attracted 460 international and Ukrainian experts in marketing and social change communications. The forum was organized by the EU-funded Civil Society Development Project, UNICEF and the Marketing Media Review (MMR).
 
Participants shared their best practices and experiences in conducting effective public outreach campaigns, dispelling myths and misconceptions, and changing behaviour to speed up far-reaching changes in the country.
 
A number of participants representing Ukraine’s leading NGOs argued that over the five years since the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity society has seen a number of changes and people now have more opportunities to have their say in shaping how the state functions. However, many spoke of the so-called “burn out” effect among public activists, fuelled by overall frustration with the slow pace of reforms and failed initiatives. “What can one do about this?” participants asked. Participants called for a change in the public’s attitude to reforms and urged Ukrainians to engage; the communications industry offers helpful tools for this purpose.
 
One of the forum’s objectives was to help NGOs conduct successful public information campaigns and create stories that win public support for issues that matter to Ukrainians. In total, 24 cases were presented at the forum. They were built on either an effective communication solution or an outreach campaign, and ranged from HIV awareness and healthy food for kids to domestic violence and demining information campaigns. The campaign entitled “Where does gender inequality come from?” made it to the list of 18 finalists. Internews supported the campaign, which was designed and conducted by independent media outlet Update.com.ua, a project carried out for five-months starting in January 2018, in which they produced and disseminated a series of multimedia products about gender issues, human rights, tolerance and non-discrimination. The campaign reached half a million people.
 
More on the Forum’s website in Ukrainian.
 
 Media Program in Ukraine Partners’ Activities
 
Discussion on Media Regulation and Self-regulation during Elections
June 7 – A group of four Internews partners, the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM), Detector Media (DM), Suspilnist Foundation (SF), and the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), organized an expert discussion at Ukrinform in Kyiv on regulation and self-regulation in media during elections. CEDEM media lawyers Taras Shevchenko and Igor Rozkladay emphasized the need for legal amendments to regulate pre-election TV debates, and the need to discuss with Facebook the regulatory mechanisms in place for social media during Ukraine’s elections. Rozkladay said that CEDEM had already contacted Facebook in this regard, and Facebook expressed its willingness to cooperate. DM leaders Natalia Ligachova and Svitlana Ostapa said commercial TV channels did react to media experts’ criticisms during the presidential election, but also did not limit the owners’ control over content in response to the criticism. Suspilnist Foundation leader Taras Petriv stressed that the transparent formation of the National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting is crucial for impartial media regulation during the upcoming parliamentary elections.
 
The Independent Association of Broadcasters (represented by Kateryna Myasnikova), Ukrainian Radio (Dmytro Khorkin), Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy (Svitlana Yeremenko), Regional Press Development Institute (Alyona Romaniuk), and Internews Ukraine (Pavlo Moiseyev) expressed the need for further constructive discussions within the media sector, with the  involvement of the National Council and commercial TV channels, to find ways to make the media a real information source for citizens, not a stage for the promotion of the business and political interests of particular persons or groups.
 
IMI’s Barometer of Freedom of Speech
June 5 – According to the Institute of Mass Information’s (IMI) monthly Barometer of Freedom of Speech, 13 freedom of speech violations occurred in Ukraine in May, all connected to physical attacks on journalists. The main type of violations was the prevention of journalists from conducting their professional activities – seven, in comparison to eight in April, 15 in March, 11 in February, and seven in January. In total, IMI reported on violations of freedom of speech and rights in seven regions, with the most cases in Kyiv (four cases), followed by Volyn (three cases) and Odesa (two cases).
 
Violators of freedom of speech included private individuals, police officers, and judicial and local authority representatives. Two cases of physical attack were registered; one was an attack on journalist and blogger Vadym Komarov in Cherkasy, and the other an attack on Avers TV channel security guards in Lutsk.
 
Two journalists were threatened: Natalia Kamyshnykova, who works for the Volyn online site Radar, received a death threat; and a Kherson oblast council member threatened to break the knees of Kherson journalist Oleh Baturyn.
 
Since the beginning of 2019, 48 cases have been registered of preventing journalists from conducting their professional activities, 12 cases of threats against journalists and five journalists have been assaulted.
 
More on the website of the Institute of Mass Information in Ukrainian.
 
Hromadske Radio Broadcasts Talk Shows about Reforms
June 5 – Hromadske Radio broadcast its 7^th program in a series of talk shows entitled “The Reformers,” supported by the USAID Media Program in Ukraine, implemented by Internews. The 50-minute talk show explains reforms in Ukraine and fills in information gaps between popular expectations and the real pace of reforms. The show’s team receives feedback on reforms from ordinary citizens and checks their suggestions and complaints with experts and practitioners. The show’s anchors are Kyrylo Lukerenko and Hryhoriy Pyrlyk.
 
The latest show was dedicated to ongoing education reforms that started in September 2018 and brought significant changes to the country’s education system. The studio guest was Ivanna Kobernyk, adviser to the Minister of Education and Science, who discussed what has changed for students, parents and teachers. Ivanna talked about how the New Ukrainian School reform, a concept of the Ministry of Education to reform the secondary school system, is connected to the decentralization reform, which is a long-term process that has seen both successes and challenges.
 
“We expect the new law on secondary education to be carried in its second reading and that will make the reform irreversible. For students, it will open up an individual learning trajectory,” Kobernyk told Hromadske Radio. “For a teacher it is an opportunity for autonomous teaching, an opportunity to use an evaluation system. It is an opportunity to create trusteeship councils, an opportunity for home studying for those who decide to do that,” Kobernyk added.
 
“The Reformers” will showcase the challenging issues facing healthcare, decentralization, infrastructure, transportation, and other reforms. Every show includes reports on a particular reform, vox pops, phone calls to practitioners, and studio discussions with experts.
 
Online Debate School for Journalism Students
June 4 – The Suspilnist Foundation (SF), together with Internews Ukraine and Detector Media, invites journalism school students from all regions of Ukraine to participate in a two-day intensive training in Kyiv on how to produce online debates.
 
The students will participate in the creation of an actual debates program and take an intensive practical course on promoting projects through social networks. The theoretical foundations of modern journalism and media production work will be on the agenda.
 
The school will take place on June 22 and 23, 2019, in Kyiv, at Internews Ukraine at 15 Ryzka St. The participants will be selected on a competitive basis. The deadline to submit an application is June 12, 2019, no later than 23:59.
 
More on Detector Media in Ukrainian.