Most journalists don’t get any access to Poroshenko while his press secretary, Sviatoslav Tsegolko, routinely refuses comment.
The president’s media strategy boils down to this: Talk to friends, ignore critics and pretend that bad news doesn’t exist.
In one of many illustrative examples, Poroshenko’s team has refused to explain why he is not firing Kirovohrad Oblast Governor Serhiy Kuzmenko under the lustration law. In another, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a Kyiv Post partner, and Hromadske TV have sent requests for comment on Poroshenko’s offshore schemes to his lawyers and investment bankers. But the president’s representatives refused to provide evidence.
Hromadske journalists asked to interview Poroshenko, but he refused. The Kyiv Post hasn’t interviewed him since he became president.
The reasons are clear: Poroshenko prefers cozy chats with handpicked loyal journalists with pre-rehearsed questions. Instead of answering questions by OCCRP and Hromadske, Poroshenko’s friends launched a smear campaign against them. He also doesn’t mind interviews with foreigners who don’t know as much about Ukraine as locals.
He wants to keep his fading reputation as a “reformer,” but polls show Ukrainians know he is protecting a corrupt oligarchy. To respond properly, he would have to oust tainted figures from his inner circle and concede to society’s demands for a real fight against corruption.
But the only political will that Poroshenko currently summons is bent on obstruction and bluff designed to keep Western aid coming.
