President Volodymyr Zelensky is nowhere near as bad as ex-President Leonid Kuchma in throttling the media. Kuchma’s system of media control, during his rule from 1994–2005, was so extensive that every oblast capital seemed to have an official “minder” who brought the full weight of an authoritarian government down on journalists who dared to be independent and critical.
When the brave Georgiy Gongadze blazed the internet trail, still a new technology in 2000, Kuchma was caught on tape expressing his profane disgust towards the Ukrainska Pravda’s founder and ordering his top aides to silence the journalist. Gongadze was kidnapped and killed on Sept. 16, 2000, and the evidence trail leads to Kuchma, who denied any involvement.
Zelensky is also nowhere near as bad as ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, who tried to make libel a criminal offense defined as offending the dignity of a public official.
Neither Kuchma nor Yanukovych were shy about deploying tax inspectors or prosecutors against the nettlesome press.
But Zelensky and his administration are going down the wrong path, all the same, in taking on journalists who don’t roll over for him. He is fearful for his political future because of his failures to battle corruption or attract fresh investment since his 2019 election. And his administration acts like a bunch of frustrated journalists, with their insistence on controlling how the messengers craft the message.
Three TV stations this week publicly pushed back and called out Zelensky, accusing him of heavy-handed tactics.
First UA: Pershyi and Pryamyi came out on Oct. 20 to accuse Zelensky’s minions of demanding who should be included and excluded from their political talk shows. They were threatened with a boycott by ruling Servant of the People party members. It appears that Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak is the enforcer. Zelensky denied the accusations, which he dismissed as hype.
But then Savik Shuster, who hosts the popular Friday night talk show Freedom of Speech, came out on Oct. 21 to say that Podolyak blocked two ruling Servant of the People members from appearing. Podolyak denied.
Based on the experience of the Kyiv Post and other media outlets, the allegations are believable. Many in this administration are vain, arrogant and thin-skinned.
While Shuster and Pryamyi don’t have spotless reputations, shall we say, it’s hard to accuse the public TV station of overt bias. Journalists in Ukraine have been murdered, targeted for violence and subjected to lawsuits all because of their profession. Sometimes, aggrieved authorities bypass journalists and vent their rage at owners of media outlets, also unacceptable.
One TV station may be a fluke, two looks bad, three is when it starts to look like a policy, one that must be reversed. Hopefully their bravery in coming forward will make the Zelensky administration decide if it wants to lead a democracy or revert to the ways of its authoritarian predecessors.
