TVi under attack, again
The troubles of TVi, the only Ukrainian television channel that digs hard to uncover corruption by authorities, turned from bad to worse this past week.
The
channel, whose management weeks ago successfully thwarted a criminal
investigation widely viewed as politically motivated, claims that it is now
being pushed out of cable networks in the nation’s most populous regions –
Donetsk and parts of Kyiv.
On Aug. 13,
TVi was turned off by nine cable network operators in the eastern Ukrainian
steel and coalmining towns of Donetsk and Mariupol, replaced with Dom Kino or
the Donbass local channels. The new move comes on top of a massive blackout by
Triolan, a major cable operator in Ukraine, which switched the channel off in
11 cities on July 20.
The initial
blackout alone meant that TVi has lost an estimated 200,000 subscribers mainly
in eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, decreasing its modest audience. The
channel is only available through cable and online.
The new
challenge comes weeks after Ukrainian prosecutors opened a criminal case
against TVi head Mykola Kniazhytsky citing tax evasion, only to closes the case
a month amid mounting pressure, citing “lack of evidence.” Kniazhytsky is now running for parliament on
the United Opposition party ticket.
TVi’s
managers said the cable networks are being pressured by the administration of
President Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions to silence the critical
channel ahead of the fall election.
“To win the
elections the Party of Regions needs to preserve the current situation on South
and East of Ukraine. That’s why they need to disconnect the TVi,” said Natalia
Katerynchuk, deputy head of the channel.
Ukraine’s
authorities deny such allegations. President Viktor Yanukovych even spoke out
in defense of the channel last month calling upon officials to stop pressuring
the media.
Katerynchuk
of TVi said that in private conversations cable networks complain that the
National TV and Radio Council, their supervisory body, is pressuring them.
“In private
phone talks the cable operators say the regional representatives of National
Television and Broadcasting Council force them to kick out TVi from their
networks,” she said.
Natalia
Sokolovska, press officer of the National Television and Radio Council, called
the allegations “untruthful.”
“We didn’t
receive any information about this from the regions,” she said.
Donetsk
mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko, a Party of Regions regional leader, described
TVi’s claims as a “joke.”
But
Viktoria Siumar, head of Institute of Mass Information, believes the campaign
against TVi is “not an empty phrase.”
“If we
analyze content of TVi and the other national channels, it is obvious their
[TVi] news is sharper, more critical and balanced,” she said. “The current
authorities don’t like this criticism, especially if their potential electorate
sees it.”
The cable
networks, meanwhile, claim that blackouts are happening for technical reasons. But
TVi journalist Denys Bihus demonstrated
in a brief news report this week that it was not true.
“We have a
copy of the letter, which [Triolan managers] sent to all regional engineers
with a demand to replace TVi with Bank TV,” Bihus said.
Ukraine’s
central bank, headed by a close Yanukovych associate, launched Bank TV this
year, supposedly to better inform citizens about the banking industry and
financial issues. TVi is owned by a Russian émigré and claims to be
independently managed by its Ukrainian staff of editors and journalists.
Katerynchuk
said TVi was preparing to file an appeal to the general prosecutor to
investigate the blackouts. She will file it after the journalistic
investigation airs.
Kyiv Post staff
writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at grytsenko@kyivpost.com