Lawmaker Taras Kozak has acquired unilateral control over the ZIK television channel. This latest purchase on June 14 makes Kozak the owner of three channels with national coverage. Besides ZIK, Kozak owns 112 Ukraine and the NewsOne channels.
Taras Kozak (Courtesy)
Kozak is a close ally of Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian politician with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both Kozak and Medvedchuk are running in the upcoming parliamentary election on the ballot of the Oppositional Platform – for Life, a pro-Russian political party.
Kozak and Medvedchuk also work together in the public sphere. They both sit on the board of a civil society organization called the Centre for the Rule-of-Law State.
Kozak says that his acquisition of ZIK is a pragmatic step for creating synergies among his channels. He intends to “build the largest network of information broadcasters, which, from the point of view of resources, will make them less costly, and at the same time will ensure their higher capitalization as an asset,” the lawmaker said, according to his 112 Ukraine channel.
Previously, the channel belonged to businessman Petro Dyminsky and was sometimes used as a platform for allies of former President Petro Poroshenko who were embroiled in scandals to present their side of the story. Since 2017, Dyminsky has been living outside Ukraine to evade arrest for his involvement in a deadly automobile accident.
On the day ZIK’s change of ownership went public, the channel’s reporters began to quit. Editor-in-chief Tetyana Verheles, CEO Ihor Turkevych, production director Olha Movchan, and journalists Vakhtang Kipiani, Roman Nedzelsky, and Serhiy Rakhmanin all announced their resignations.
“So, this has happened: Taras Kozak, an ally of the father of Putin’s godchild” — i.e. Medvedchuk — “has become owner of ZIK. I personally see no opportunities to continue working here,” Movchan wrote on her Facebook page.
This was not the first time prominent journalists had left ZIK. In January 2018, broadcaster Roksana Runo left the channel due to a long-standing disagreement with the previous owners about the contents of her talk show and its invited guests.
Last May, two journalists left the 112 Ukraine channel citing a change in editorial policies away from journalistic independence.
