Kateryna Rozhkova, the first deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, said that the NBU Council, the bank’s advisory body, has once again tried to censor her.
In a Facebook post on March 9, Rozkhova claimed that the NBU’s press service tried to stop her interview with Ukrainian newspaper Novoe Vremya from being published in its original form.
The interview touched on many topics, including monetary policy, banking oversight, cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, whether the central bank is on the right path, Rozhkova’s new role and her ongoing conflict with the NBU Council. Among her other comments, the first deputy governor said that the bank’s decision-making process is “drifting towards centralization.”
Rozkhova said that just a few hours after she gave the interview, an order appeared from NBU Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko forbidding her to comment on the NBU’s internal matters, personnel policy and cooperation with the IMF.
Despite the NBU’s attempts to censor the interview, Novoe Vremya decided to publish the full transcript of the conversation on March 9.
To Rozhkova, this is yet another example of censorship within the National Bank of Ukraine that has been on the rise since August 2020 after the change of leadership at the NBU and a number of personnel changes in key departments.
NBU spokeswoman Halyna Kalachova responded on Facebook, saying that the central bank’s press service did not provide Novoe Vremya with an alternative version of the interview and that an edited version of the interview does not exist. She added that she “is sorry that NBU board members manage to twist facts, slander, and provoke the media to publish incorrect information.”
Vitaliy Sych, editor-in-chief of Novoe Vremya, told the Kyiv Post that after sending the written transcript of the interview to the NBU’s press service, Rozhkova sent it back with half of the answers deleted.
While the Kyiv Post never sends material to press services for review before publication, numerous Ukrainian publications do so, according to Sych.
Sych says Rozhkova proposed to publish the “censored” version of the article with the answers deleted, to highlight the censorship problem at the NBU.
In the end, Sych, along with his business editor, decided the best decision was to publish the original, full version of the interview to remain “true to (their) civil and journalistic position.” Novoe Vremya added an editor’s note at the beginning of the interview stating Rozhkova’s claims that the NBU had tried to censor her.
When Novoe Vremya reached out to notify the NBU’s press service that it was going ahead with the original version, the press service denied deleting anything from the interview, saying Rozkhova’s claims were just “her perception of the situation,” Sych said.
But Sych is almost certain the NBU tried to censor Rozhkova. Sych cited the fact that the press service is loyal to the new head of the NBU Kyrylo Shevchenko, who has been at odds with Rozhkova since last year.
In October 2020, the NBU Council voted to issue a reprimand and a statement of no confidence to Rozhkova and NBU deputy governor Dmytro Sologub for comments made to the Kyiv Post and Interfax-Ukraine in September 2020. Shevchenko, who also has a seat on the council, voted in favor of the reprimand.
Rozhkova was later stripped of her banking oversight duties.
Rozhkova and Sologub are the last remaining members of the bank’s old six-member leadership team. Former governor Yakiv Smolii resigned in June 2020 due to “systemic political pressure,” followed by two deputy governors and several other important officials.
Multiple former NBU employees told the Kyiv Post in September that the central bank’s new management criticized important banking sector reforms and that the NBU Council kept trying to take control over the institution’s policymaking, threatening its independence.
While Rozhkova defended the central bank’s “collegial decision-making process” in the past, she has since warned about censorship in its ranks.
“What worries me is that there is a very short road from censorship of words to censorship of opinions. And (once that happens), both transparency and professionalism of the National Bank will be forgotten,” Rozhkova wrote.
