Leading cable network operator Volia negatively surprised the Kyiv audience of TVi, the Ukrainian television channel that digs deepest in probing corruption by officials, by transferring it to a more expensive package, effectively limiting the number of viewers.
“Starting
Sept. 5 channel TVi will be available on a regular basis to subscribers of the
wider package Vsesvit (Universe),” said Alina Sigda, a Volia spokesperson.
She argued
moving TVi, which has for years complained about attempts to silence and mutt
it’s hard-hitting news coverage, was purely a business decision. The channel’s
premium content warranted a premium subscription, she added.
“This package
comprises the best and the most highly rated channels available, which includes
TVi,” Sigda added.
Sigda
conceded, however, that oligarch-owned, government-friendly channels that have
the highest of ratings, namely Inter and 1+1, will remain in the less expensive
basic package.
Volia offers
each city a different set of packages. In Kyiv, a monthly subscription for the
Vsesvit package costs Hr 80, almost twice the Hr 47 price for the standard
version.
According to
the cable network provider, the cheaper package has about 250,000 subscribers
in the capital, while Volia Vsesvit subscribers number 78,000.
TVi managers
fear this will reduce the channel’s audience, which has already decreased
dramatically throughout Ukraine.
“We are going
to lose more than two thirds of our viewers,” TVi head Mykola Kniazhytsky wrote
on his Facebook page. He is currently running for parliament on the United
Opposition party ticket.
The recent
decision by Ukraine’s leading cable provider marks the latest in a series of
woes dogging the channel, one of few remaining TV outlets that dare openly
criticize the government and produce numerous hard-hitting investigative
reports exposing corruption at the highest ranks of President Viktor
Yanukovych’s administration.
Ukrainian
prosecutors opened a criminal case against Kniazhytsky in July for tax evasion,
but closed it weeks ago amid mounting pressure, citing “lack of evidence.”
However, a court hearing scheduled for Sept. 13 could reopen the case, TVi
journalists claim.
On Aug. 13,
TVi was turned off by nine cable network operators in Ukraine’s eastern
regions. The channel’s managers claim cable operators were pressured by the
authorities to silence them ahead of the fall election.
“The National
Television and Radio Council demanded cable operators illegally disconnect the
TVi signal. Over 60 cable companies have removed TVi from their packages,”
journalists from the station wrote in an open petition.
The
journalists said the government aimed “to destroy the last channel not
controlled by those in power” in their statement to the Ukrainian public, the
Parliament Assembly of Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the European
Bank of Reconstruction and Development and participants of the World Newspaper
Congress, to start in Kyiv on Sept. 2.
A study by
the non-governmental organization Association “Common Space” in
August showed TVi was the most critical to those in power of all national TV
channels in Ukraine. Authorities received overall positive coverage in
Ukrainian media, the study noted.
International
observers fear that biased coverage may seriously influence the results of the
parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 28.
“When you
look at individual TV channels there doesn’t seem to be any channel at a
national level that would provide equitable coverage of all political parties …
This (has much in) common to the situation during the 2004 elections,” said
Rasto Kuzel, executive director of MEMO 98, a Slovakia-based media watchdog.
“We see
slightly different coverage by TVi (compared) to all the other channels,” he
added.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected].
