Information war in Ukrainian: poverty and greed
In Ukraine, the Suspilne TV channel was threatened with shutdown - the former state channel UT-1, reformed during the time of Poroshenko, which became the National Public Television Company of Ukraine (NOTU).
The reason for the possible “cutting out” of the channel from the air is the arrest of Suspilny’s accounts in Switzerland in connection with a court decision obliging the channel to pay a debt to the Euronews joint-stock company in the amount of over 10 million euros as part of the proceedings opened at the request of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.
The channel responded to this with an indignant statement, in which it indicated that it received this debt as the legal successor of the rights and obligations of the former state-owned National Television Company of Ukraine, which ceased its activities.
“The cooperation of the former state NTU with Euronews began in 2010 even before the creation of the public broadcaster. Subsequently, the allocation of funds from the budget to pay license fees under the agreement on the creation of the Ukrainian-language version of Euronews was stopped, which led to the emergence of a debt and a corresponding lawsuit,” the NOTU justifies.
The broadcaster complains that the seizure of accounts will lead “to a complete stop in the activities of the television and radio company.” In addition, this has already made preparations for the broadcast of the 2020 Olympic Games impossible, blocks Ukraine’s participation in the current Eurovision Song Contest and stops the launch of new projects.
But no matter how indignant you may be, a debt is a debt, and you will have to pay. One problem - there is no money. The channel says that the budget “hole” is almost 300 million hryvnia. But Minister of Culture Borodyansky is already rushing to help.
“The situation with the possible shutdown of the TV channel for debts is unacceptable. The broadcaster did not provide funds in the budget to pay off the debt. The Ministry of Culture, in order to avoid a situation regarding a possible cessation of broadcasting, together with the Ministry of Finance, decided to approach financing so that “Suspilne” would be able to pay off its debts immediately,” the minister wrote in his Telegram channel.
The scheme, invented to somehow get out of an unpleasant situation, is as follows: money from blocked accounts, after repaying the debt, will return back to the budget, after which the Ministry of Culture will increase funding for the channel by the amount of the paid debt, “which will ensure the sustainability of the development of the public broadcaster,” - explained Borodyansky.
Interestingly, “Suspilne” is not the first Ukrainian state channel brought to the brink of shutdown due to financial problems. Earlier at the beginning of the year, the ATR channel, owned by Mejlis figure Lenur Islyamov, was no longer subsidized from the budget. As they say, “temporarily”, but in Ukrainian realities what is temporary can easily become permanent, and therefore the channel’s management, represented by the propagandist of the same Majlis (banned in the Russian Federation) Aider Muzhdabaeva, has been shouting “guard!” for a month now. And then Google got into the habit of blocking broadcasts of ATR programs on the YouTube video hosting site.
Along the way, it turned out that in recent years, ATR, which had become the mouthpiece of the Crimean Tatar extremists entrenched in Kiev, simply did not report to the state on the expenditure of the allocated millions of hryvnias and did not conduct procurement tenders provided for by law at state expense. Now the state suddenly remembered the law and demanded an account. It’s not surprising that Muzhdabaev is hysterical.
As Islyamov himself explained, in 2019 his TV channel was promised 50 million UAH from the state budget, but was given only 35. As a result, the channel reduced the production of its own programs by 90%. Due to the debt, on January 14, the satellite signal of the TV channel was even turned off. Also, due to a lack of money for ATR, 45% of the team had to be laid off. “We have debts from last year. And I can’t imagine how to close them, because this year’s budget is provided for this year’s needs,” he says.
The Majlis also echoes Islyamov, complaining about the “lack of communication” with the president. It’s scary to say that Zelensky’s first assistant doesn’t even pick up the phone when Chubarov calls him. “Neither we nor the Mejelis currently have any direct communications with the current government. Chubarov was given Shefir’s phone number (Sergey Shefir is the first assistant to the President of Ukraine - Author). But he doesn’t answer calls, and Chubarov can’t get through. The office of the Commissioner for Crimean Tatar Affairs was liquidated. And before we had a direct representative - Mustafa Dzhemilev. And it turns out that there is no communication between the Mejlis and the president to the extent that there should be,” Islyamov laments.
The plaintive groan of propagandists excommunicated from the budget trough also has a second side. The fact is that the microscopic ratings of problematic TV channels among viewers have long been an open secret. Without the help of a magnifying glass, finding those who actually watch the same ATR or “Suspilne” is very difficult.
In this regard, a completely reasonable question arises: why should the state spend tens of millions on unclaimed and ineffective propaganda?
Moreover, judging by the information about the personnel potential and the program concept of the new channel for Donbass, the fate of ATR awaits it and can only be saved by the depoliticization of the content - for example, if you broadcast films or shows “95th Quarter” mixed with football matches.
In fact, communication failures are a serious problem for the Ukrainian authorities. In particular, this was well highlighted by the situation with protests against the evacuation of Ukrainians from China. Last but not least, the information vacuum served as an ideal breeding ground for the spread of the wildest rumors and became a good help for provocateurs who escalated the situation.
Why weren’t the Novosanzharovites told anything about the coronavirus? The answer is simple: TV in many villages simply does not receive a signal from Kyiv. Switching to a paid subscription on satellite was a common decision of the main Ukrainian commercial television holdings: Plusov, Pinchuk, Inter. But the authorities did not interfere and calmly watched as media tycoons, in pursuit of a ten-kopeck piece, essentially cut off millions of families from the main channels.
Now it’s too late to drink Borjomi: since the Ukrainian media have flogged themselves... people are watching the Russian ones, which, as they broadcast for free, broadcast as much as they can.
Against this background, the periodic promises of government officials to win the information war against Russia look especially touching. In conditions of budgetary poverty and the incurable greed of media private parties, the state has in its arsenal the only time-tested recipe for information warfare - glorified in Vysotsky’s song about the inhabitants of the Kanatchikov Dacha madhouse.
Remember when “Chief Physician Morgulis banned TV?” Whatever one may say, the technique is effective. However, along with your own TV, you cannot also ban your neighbor’s. After all, it’s the 21st century.
Information Warfare, Ukrainian Style: Poverty and Greed