Media Blackout: The Top Four Topics Banned From Ukrainian Television

© AFP 2023 / VIKTOR DRACHEVGreat Patriotic War veteran watches Petro Poroshenko on TV.
Great Patriotic War veteran watches Petro Poroshenko on TV. - Sputnik International
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Activists from the Ukrainian non-profit group 'Media Lustration', looking to increase the public's control over the activities of Ukrainian media, have been keeping tabs on the topics not being covered by the country's television channels. Here is the list of subjects they came up with for the month of September.

The group of activists studied programs from Ukraine's most popular state and oligarch-owned television channels, including 1+1, ICTV, Intera, STB, Noviy Kanal, UBR, Channel 24 and Channel 5, sharing their findings with popular Ukrainian online newspaper Korrespondent.net.

The Ban on Russian Airline Flights to Ukraine

An Airbus A319 passenger aircraft of the Aeroflot company. - Sputnik International
Aeroflot Confirms Receiving Ukraine Flight Ban Starting October 25
The group found that one of the major stories systemically underreported last month was the Ukrainian government's decision to ban several Russian airlines from flying to Ukraine, and the resultant economic losses to be faced by Ukrainian airports.

"The losses Ukrainian airports will face and where this will all lead was not mentioned at all or mentioned only in passing," ML noted. The group added that the country's television channels nearly uniformly underreported the fact that the restrictions will mean losses for Ukraine's budget, and that people will lose their jobs. 

The analysts also estimated that 92% of television reports covered the issue in a one-sided manner. "This example shows a situation where the media factually become 'advocates' for the prime minister, defending the government's ratings and completely ignoring the interests of ordinary citizens."

Earlier this month, the Russian ministry of transportation estimated that Ukrainian and Russian companies stand to lose a total of about 7-8 billion rubles (equivalent to about $100-120 million US) per year, following the Ukrainian government's decision to ban major Russian airlines, including Aeroflot and Transaero, from entering the country's airspace. The ban will begin to be enforced later this month.

The Illegality of the Crimean Food Blockade

Media Lustration calculated that 97% of the reports covering the Right Sector and Mejlis Tatar activists' food blockade of Crimea kept completely silent on the issue of the blockade's legality. "The channels covered only the fact of the blockade itself, ignoring the statements of lawyers and politicians about the initiative's potential to violate the law," the media monitoring group noted.

Kherson farmers protesting the collapse of prices resulting from Right Sector and Tatar activists' blockade of Crimea. - Sputnik International
Blockade of Crimea Turning Into Disaster for Ukrainian Farmers
Furthermore, Ukrainian TV was shown to have paid little attention to the job and income losses faced by southern Ukrainian smallholder farmers dependent on the Crimean market, who have been forced to sell their produce for a pittance and to destroy much of what remains in the midst of the blockade.

'Uncompromising PR for NATO'

The news of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's visit to Kiev was noted by ML to have been surrounded by tremendous (and unfounded) optimism over the prospects of Ukraine's possible accession to the alliance. 

"However," Media Lustration explained, "Ukrainian television channels, as in the case of the airline sanctions, almost completely missed the flip side of the coin," failing to mention the billions in spending which would be required to bring the country's military up to NATO standards.

"In the transition to NATO standards, the Ukrainian defense ministry would require billions of dollars in investments, and the alliance has not announced any intention to invest that money. However, a full 100% of the country's TV reports did not raise this issue at all."

'Under Eternal Censorship': Pensions and Life in General in the People's Republics

The activists from Media Lustration noted that there are some topics which Ukrainian television has "been ignoring for a long time, in spite of their social significance." Within this "blacklist" are the topics of Ukraine's political prisoners and the movement of people and goods across the border of the so-called zone of the 'anti-terrorist operation'.

"It's not something that's talked about on the air, probably in order not to cause resentment or to create legal collisions," ML analysts suggested.

As events have shown, that "resentment" could come in the form of a minister or oligarch signing an order to have a program canceled, or, in the more extreme case, via a visit from your local ultra-right MP and his thugs to force you to resign, under threat of getting beat up, or worse.

Moreover, the lives of pensioners and state employees in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics is a subject about which Ukrainian television has kept silent, perhaps out of fear of finding some unflattering comparisons.

Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko speaks to deputies during a report for the fulfillment of the state budget in parliament, in Kiev, Ukraine, June 16, 2015 - Sputnik International
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Another topic which has remained closed to media investigation is the subject of the condictions under which the country's IMF rescue loan was obtained. 

"It's not something that has been picked up on in recent months. In particular, we have not been informed about the laws which will have to be adopted in exchange for the loan. There is also silence over how the changes in the country's laws will affect the country's economy and ordinary citizens. In 70% of cases, reports confuse concepts, calling the loan 'aid'. Only in 30% of cases is the loan actually called a loan."

Media Lustration consists of representatives from dozens of Ukrainian social groups who have declared the need for public control over journalists and the media. These include over a dozen trade unions, human rights groups, NGOs and anti-war activists.

Cities on the world map. Kiev. - Sputnik International
Reporters Without Borders Slams Kiev Over Blacklisting Journalists
Media Lustration's reports serve as confirmation of a long-observed trend in Ukrainian political and social life. Last month, Reporters Without Borders condemned Kiev's decision to blacklist several dozen foreign journalists from entering Ukraine. In August, authorities issued a crackdown on dozens of books by Russian authors, banning them from being imported into the country.

Over the past year, authorities created and diligently expanded a list of banned Russian media, prohibiting hundreds of Russian and Soviet films and television series, issuing a blacklist on Russian artists charged with "threatening Ukraine's national security," and banning the broadcast of over a dozen Russian TV channels on Ukrainian territory.

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