Zurab Alasania, who was fired on Jan. 31 as the CEO of Suspilne Telebachennya (Public Television), posted a document on Feb. 1 according to which one of the supervisory board’s complaints against him was a lack of coverage of some events attended by President Petro Poroshenko.
The Presidential Administration said on Feb. 1 it had always supported “the creation of an independent public broadcaster” but did not elaborate whether it supported Alasania’s dismissal.
Alasania said the document that he published on Facebook was a draft of the decision on his dismissal.
“(Suspilne) did not cover fast enough or did not cover at all (except for short mentions in news) such important events as the national church procession for a united national church on July 28, 2018 (in which at least 65,000 citizens took part), a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly that was devoted to issues that are very important for Ukraine (including a speech by the president of Ukraine), an international economic forum called Innovations, Investments, Kharkiv Initiatives (attended by the head of state),” according to the document published by Alasania. “During 2018, under Alasania’s leadership, the company used the falsely interpreted principle of neutrality towards the government and completely de-politicized news coverage, which directly contradicts Suspilne Television’s mission to give society reliable and balanced information on Ukraine and the world.”
The church procession mentioned in the document was part of efforts to create an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which have been heavily promoted by Poroshenko ahead of the March 31 election where he will try to win a second term.
Tetiana Lebedeva, head of Suspilne’s supervisory board, confirmed that the text published by Alasania had been included in the draft decision but added that it had not been included in the final decision.
Suspilne’s labor union on Feb. 1 accused Alasania of violating labor law, financial mismanagement, awarding big bonuses and hiring unqualified employees, which is denied by Alasania.
Tatyana Kiselchuk, the general producer for education programs at Suspilne, wrote on Facebook on Feb. 1 that Suspilne board members Viktor Taran and Serhiy Taran had taken issue with the fact that Suspilne had dared to show a song by a band called Hamerman Znyshchuye Virusy (Hammerman Destroys Viruses), which they deem to be controversial, three hours after Poroshenko’s New Year’s Day address on Dec. 31. Alasania also said it was one of the complaints.
Serhiy Taran was delegated to the board by the Poroshenko Bloc. He and his brother, board member Viktor Taran did not respond to requests for comment sent on Facebook.
Suspilne Telebachennya, also known as UA.Pershiy, was launched in 2015 to replace the state-owned Pershy Natsionalny (First National) channel. Suspilne was intended as Ukraine’s equivalent of BBC – a public broadcaster independent from the government. Thanks to its wide network, Suspilne is available in 93 percent of Ukrainian households, topping any private channel.
“Do you know how authoritarian regimes are created?” independent lawmaker Viktor Chumak said on Facebook. “At the beginning, (the authorities) take control over the whole media landscape… Petro Oleksiyovych (Poroshenko) didn’t die for the freedom of speech like he promised to (television journalist Savik) Shuster. He’s killing it.”
Chumak referred to an interview Poroshenko gave to Shuster in 2014, where he said he “would die for the freedom of speech.”
Alasania said in an interview with the Babel news site that he had had a long-running conflict with board member Oleksiy Panych, who he said does not differentiate between propaganda and journalism.
Panych also denied accusations that Alasania’s dismissal was linked to censorship.
“The public broadcaster must be independent from political interference – it’s an axiom,” he said on Facebook. “(Independence) must be preserved regardless of leadership changes, and it has been achieved partially thanks to Zurab Alasania… But we didn’t create Suspilne to have non-transparent cash flows under a beautiful façade of independence from political interference.”
Alasania argued that he had been fired due to Suspilne’s refusal to air political ads and over the authorities’ dissatisfaction with the anti-corruption shows that are broadcast by the channel.
He said he believed the Schemes and Nashi Hroshi investigative shows, which have exposed the corruption of top officials, would not survive long on Suspilne after his dismissal.
Meanwhile, dozens of independent journalists signed a joint statement on Feb. 1 against Alasania’s dismissal.
“We believe the actions of Suspilne Television’s supervisory board to be a direct manifestation of censorship and a very dangerous precedent for the country,” the journalists said. “… Alasania was dismissed on Jan. 31, 2019 as a result of a non-transparent, secret vote with obvious violations of procedure, the spirit of the public broadcasting law, the functions of the independent supervisory board and common sense. It is unacceptable.”
Yevhen Hlibovytsky, another member of Suspilne’s supervisory board, on Feb. 1 proposed canceling the vote on Alasania’s dismissal due to procedural violations. He said the vote was invalid because no reasons were stated.
Hlibovytsky also said that four to six members of the supervisory board now claim that they voted against Alasania’s dismissal.
“We were expelled the f*** away from the board meeting, and they held a secret meeting and just fired Zurab,” Kiselchuk from Suspilne said on Facebook. “Today the impotent board decided… to say ‘f*** you’ to independent journalism and ‘f*** you’ to a platform of equal opportunities ahead of the presidential election.”
Svitlana Ostapa, a deputy head of Suspilne’s supervisory board, told the Glavkom news site that the contract with Alasania had been terminated ahead of schedule because he had allegedly violated it.
She did not elaborate on the alleged violations but said that the minutes of the supervisory board’s meeting, including reasons for Alasania’s dismissal, would be published within five days.
Ostapa claimed that Alasania’s dismissal was not linked to censorship. She told the Kyiv Post, however, that she did not rule out that his successor could turn out to be less independent.
