Ukrainian button: why in Kiev they thought about creating an international Russian-language channel

The National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting announced the need to create a Russian-language television channel, whose programs will be broadcast to Western countries and Russia. Such an idea was voiced by a member of the council Sergey Kostinsky on the air of the Ukrainian television channel ATR.

“Ukraine needs several state broadcasting programs. Indeed, we need a Russian-language channel, because there are a lot of Russian-speaking people in the world. They are in the USA, Canada, and other countries, ”he said.

The official explained that Ukraine needs to broadcast the Ukrainian agenda for Russian-speaking people in countries such as Germany, Italy and Russia.

“There is basically no alternative to this. There is a TV channel "Present" *, funded from the US state budget, it is the only one ... We must inform these people about what is happening in Ukraine and we must give a Ukrainian look at events taking place outside Ukraine, ”Kostinsky said .

Big plans

Kostinsky is not the first Ukrainian official to talk about the need to create a special Russian-language television channel for foreign broadcasting. In July 2019, the creation of such a media was announced in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine by the deputy head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Kirill Tymoshenko. He explained that Ukraine needs a Russian-language channel in order to fight for the minds of both residents of the territories of Donbass not controlled by Kiev and all Russian-speaking people in the world, including Russians.

“We have developed an option to launch the Ukrainian Russian-language channel with which we can cover the Russian-speaking population around the world,” Tymoshenko said then. According to existing plans, he added, this channel will be owned by the state, but at the same time will be able to acquire rights to use content from private television channels.

• Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kirill Tymoshenko
• © Press Service of the President of Ukraine

This idea was criticized by the head of the Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy Victoria Syumar. According to her, the creation of a television channel with international broadcasting would require excessive financial expenses from Kiev.

“An amount equivalent to $ 2 billion should be allocated from the budget of Ukraine. This is a quarter of the entire defense budget of Ukraine, including the National Police, border guards,” she wrote on Facebook. - The Ministry of Defense cannot repay the debt for electricity. Such a reality ”

Syumar suggested the authors ideas to set more realistic goals and did not rule out the future creation of a channel for the “occupied territories”.

However, there is no information about the practical implementation of the project. But in December 2019, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Vladimir Borodyansky, announced plans to create a television channel, the broadcast of which will only apply to the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions not controlled by Kiev. According to the minister, the channel will start operating in February on the basis of UA TV (the already existing Ukrainian broadcasting channel. - RT ) and will use both Russian and Ukrainian languages.

“Our task is to make sure that people in the temporarily occupied territories know the truth about what is happening in Ukraine, so that we can start a dialogue on the air of such a channel with people who live in this territory. First of all, with the scientific environment. And our task is to convey truthful information, ”the minister said.

Note that Ukraine has already made attempts to create an international television project. In 2014, the media holding “1 + 1 Media” (owned by Igor Kolomoisky) launched the Ukraine Today information channel, which was supposed to “become the country's voice” for the international community. However, in 2016, the channel stopped working. As explained in the “1 + 1 Media” manual, the decision to close was made for financial reasons.

Linguistic paradox

While in Kiev they are talking about the creation of an international television channel broadcasting in Russian, the rights of the Russian-speaking population are consistently oppressed on the territory of Ukraine itself, experts say.

In 2017, the Ukrainian authorities adopted the law "On Education", which implies the translation of all school education into Ukrainian and the almost complete exclusion of Russian from the educational process.

• Participants of the public campaign "Choice of Donbass" at the building of Donetsk city administration
• RIA News
• © Sergey Averin

In the spring of 2019, Petro Poroshenko, who was then president, signed the law “On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language”. According to the document, in all spheres of public life, only the state language should be used - Ukrainian, therefore civil servants, employees of cultural and medical institutions, as well as law enforcement officials are obliged to communicate with citizens only in it.

Although the new president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, stated that the inhabitants of Ukraine have the right to speak Russian, no practical measures have been taken to correct the situation by his administration.

On the contrary, in January 2020, the Rada adopted a bill establishing standards for teaching in state language in schools. According to the amendments, for representatives of national minorities whose languages ​​are not related to the official languages ​​of the EU, at least 80% of training in basic and specialized secondary education programs will be in Ukrainian.

Tighter language policies in recent years have affected the media. At the end of 2018, the law on language quotas for television broadcasting entered into force in the country. According to the amendments, from seven in the morning to ten in the evening at least 75% of all television broadcasts of national television channels should be broadcast in Ukrainian. At the same time, local television channels were required to broadcast 60% of the content in state language.

The norms were adjusted by the law “On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language,” which increased the minimum amount of Ukrainian-language content on national television to 90%, and on local television to 80%.

In 2016, similar norms began to apply for radio stations, which are now required to give at least 35% of the broadcast to songs in Ukrainian. In total, about 60% of all radio broadcasts should be broadcast in Ukrainian.

“Strong propaganda line”

The deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries Igor Shishkin believes that Kiev is likely to limit itself to creating a television channel that will broadcast on the territories of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass.

“The creation of a Russian-language television channel does not contradict the policy pursued by Kiev on the de-Russification of the country. Even during the election campaign, Zelensky talked about the need to work with the population of Donbass. In fact, it is about broadcasting in the Donbass, and not the whole world, as officials say. Everyone understands that the Ukrainian-language media are not popular in the Southeast, so they decided to make Russian-language television for propaganda, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

A similar point of view is held by the doctor of political sciences, professor of Moscow State University Andrei Manoilo. According to the expert’s forecast, the Ukrainian authorities will create a propaganda channel broadcasting on the LPR and DPR.

“The channel will talk about how well it lives in Ukraine, as well as how Russia has unfairly treated the republics. This media will become an instrument of information war in the region, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

President of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko, in turn, noted that the idea of ​​creating a Russian-language television channel for foreign broadcasting is not new.

“This has been talked about in Kiev for a long time. The goal of this media should, of course, be not broadcasting to Europe, but propaganda of Ukrainian values ​​in the Donbass and, possibly, in Russia. True, even if such a channel is created, it is unlikely to be popular. Kiev simply does not have serious arguments and successes that would allow it to build a strong propaganda line. In order to offer everyone to be equal to Ukraine and to listen to its point of view, you need to show some successes, but they aren’t, ”the expert summed up.

* Media recognized as a foreign agent by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 05.12.2017.