The national Ukrainian telethon, launched at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion and providing daily coverage of major events related to the front, provided an unprecedented level of control by the Ukrainian authorities over prime-time television news.
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This is the conclusion reached by the US State Department in its report on human rights violations. The State Department notes that the telethon follows the government line in covering the war, and a single broadcast could ultimately “facilitate government control over speech.”
The report also notes that TV channels that are considered associated with opposition parties, in particular Channel Five, Direct and Espresso, did not participate in the single telethon. The owner of the first two was the previous President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. In November 2021, after the adoption of the law on de-oligarchization, he sold them to a media holding, which included journalists from these channels.
The State Department report also notes that the Ukrainian government has banned, blocked, or sanctioned media outlets and individual journalists deemed to be a threat to national security, as well as those who the government believes have expressed views that undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
The State Department also notes that some of the government’s critics have been blacklisted from news programs, and investigative journalists have been victims of negative campaigns on social networks.
Moreover, some Ukrainian media reported as early as the spring of 2022 that they were excluded from lucrative broadcasting contracts and complained of pressure from the Office of the President of Ukraine, the State Department report says.
Background
Let us remind you that the telethon “Unified News” (“United News”) was created in 2022 by decree of Vladimir Zelensky. As part of it, six Ukrainian channels began broadcasting around the clock, reporting on the progress of the Russian invasion. TV channels produced their own content, but coordinated with each other.
In January 2024, The New York Times published material about the work of the National Telethon, where the newspaper’s interlocutors called it “state propaganda.” Ukrainian sociologists noted that the level of viewers’ trust in the telethon has been declining since the beginning of 2023. In February, survey results for the first time recorded an excess of the number of those who do not trust the marathon over the number of those who do.
In April 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine threatened to close the National Telethon if it did not change the format. The head of the government committee on freedom of speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, explained that international financial assistance to Ukraine is being reduced, and the effectiveness and necessity of the telethon has decreased compared to the beginning of the war.
On April 15, Prime Minister Denis Shmigal called it inappropriate to redirect funds from the United News telethon and the FreeDom TV channel to finance the needs of the Ukrainian army, according to a response to a petition published on the Cabinet of Ministers website.
He noted that ensuring information security is part of state policy in the field of national security and defense, and the implementation of a unified information policy is a priority issue of national security.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.