The problems facing Ukraine’s media were spotlighted in an expert discussion in America House in Kyiv on Oct. 22, with speakers reporting little progress being made in increasing media freedoms in the country.
The discussions focused on the reasons for Ukraine’s middling ranking in the Media Sustainability Index, which is published by the International Research & Exchange Board or IREX.
Tara Susman-Peña, an IREX senior technical advisor, opened the discussion by reporting that journalists across the 21 countries in the Media Sustainability Index’s Europe and Eurasia study were suffering increased levels of harassment.
“We’ve seen an increase in both physical attacks and legal actions against journalists across these 21 countries,” Susman-Peña said. “And (there was) not just an increase, but a notable lack of follow up, so in other words immunity, no sufficient consequences for those who attack journalists.”
While attacks on journalists are not exclusively a Ukrainian problem, there is “official indifference” concerning attacks against journalists in Ukraine, Susman-Peña said.
Ukraine’s Media Sustainability Index score is currently 2.08 points (out of 4), which is better than the 1.72 points it scored in 2013, but well below the peak score of 2.37 the country achieved in 2007.
In compiling a country’s score, the index takes into account the legal and social norms protecting media freedom and access to free speech, professional standards and quality among journalists, the editorial independence of the media, and the supporting institutions that are invested in promoting free speech.
Countries that score more than 3 points have a sustainable and self-sufficient media system that is free from harassment and illegal persecution, according to IREX. None of the 21 countries in the study gained such a score: Georgia had a slightly higher Media Sustainability Index than Ukraine, at 2.31 points, while Russia and Belarus had indexes of 1.72 and 1.61 respectively.
Kateryna Laba, the former director of Regional Press Development Institute, said that even though Ukraine has a better than average index score, it is still far from having a sustainable and self-sufficient media system. Independence of the media is the biggest concern, with the worst situation occurring from 2009 until 2013, Laba said.
Other crucial problems are a general poor level of journalism in Ukraine, with a large number of unprofessional media outlets lacking transparent sources of income, and the government’s inability or reluctance to prosecute those who interfere in the work of journalists.
Mykhailo Tkach, a journalist from the investigative TV show Schemes of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, gave several examples of such interference in Ukraine, where he and his crew were physically attacked while trying to film someone and clearly identifying themselves as journalists.
The most recent attack took place when the crew tried to investigate frequent direct flights from Kyiv to Sochi and Moscow made by pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
Unknown persons prevented Tkach’s team from filming Medvedchuk’s plane leaving Kyiv International Airport in November 2017.
The case was sent to court in March and is still being heard, yet only one of several attackers stands accused. At the same time, Medvedchuk is suing the journalists for violating his privacy by attempting to film the landing of his plane.
Other cases of physical violence against Tkach’s team saw even less progress.
A case regarding a 2015 attack by the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine was shut down by the Prosecutor General’s Office and reopened by court – it went like that three times. Since June 2017, the journalists are fighting to reopen the case for the fourth time.
Another one, a September 2017 attack by the State Security Guard officers who also tried to prevent the team from filming, never made it to court.
“We were questioned once, and we’ve never heard from them since,” Tkach said.
