The, management of the Ukrainian TV channels is becoming an increasingly popular target, along with politicians, for civic initiatives and protests. For example, last week, due to multiple complaints and protest in front of its TV channel office, ICTV was forced to abandon its plans to show the questionable film We Are from the Future-II, doubly questionable because of the intent to air it on November 27, The Day of commemoration of victims of the manmade famines and political repressions.
On Wednesday, December 1, the “No to Manipulations” civic initiative called on Ukrainian society to join the “Day without TV” action. Its organizers hope that this form of protest will force the managers of Ukrainian TV channels to change their editorial policy, at least partially, and “stop feeding us the crap that TV bosses would never let their own children watch — news which is clearly paid for by its ‘heroes’ and full of lies, low-quality series, and copycat shows.”
In its message for the media, the initiative refers to the American experience, where the association “TV-Free America” was established in the 1990s and organized annual week-long “television abstinence.” In 1996, more than four million people and 36, 000 schools participated in the event, and the boycott was supported by 26 governors. That year, according to people-meter estimates, three leading US television channels lost up to 1.5 million viewers. Thus, they had to meet the audience’s demands and make some changes to programming policy.
Of course, the “Day without TV” action would struggle to attract four million Ukrainian people. Just because of the fact that a large proportion of those who dedicate their free time to the TV screen, probably, can not even imagine that television can be different, while they can and should do quite well without the Bros-II series. They, after all, cannot imagine the life of their country and even their own, for their heads are for years (deliberately?) infused with alien and unproductive matrices. After such a “brain attack,” the demand for quality broadcasting is almost inexistant. Realizing this, TV managers will, most likely, pretend to know nothing about the “Day without TV.”
But this does not mean that crap on the air is the norm.
Some time ago, Lesia Sakada, well-known to The Day’s readers as a “cultural issues” journalist, also bid farewell to television. However, she did so not for one day, but for a much longer period.
“Of course, it’s high time to defend our rights,” says Lesia. “I remember once Volodymyr Kartashkov, who is currently a citizen of Russia, said that television should be a supermarket that can satisfy the tastes of all people who come there. But why in this case, are my tastes not satisfied? I want to see stories about classical music, interviews with writers and opera singers. I am sure that I am not that unique. Recently I had heard a luxurious baritone singer at the Chernihiv Philharmonic. But no one knows about him. For this singer to get on the air — it would be the event of a lifetime. I have seen these enthusiastic grandmothers who came to the matinee with bouquets of flowers. I want it shown on the TV! I want to see that our Ukraine is very cultured, beautiful, and gorgeous, that it explores its family tree, goes to concerts and libraries. Why does TV limit me in my right to see this Ukraine, too? If we were a more unified nation, we could definitely influence the TV channels’ programming policy. Sorry, even the minister of culture could contribute to it. Clearly, something has to be changed. Who knows, maybe it is this action that will be the first to succeed?”
Incidentally, The Day has long called on its readers to ignore low-quality products. To facilitate it, we established the Program Guide column [found in our Ukrainian and Russian editions – Ed.], which aims to orient the reader as well as ourselves in a sea of bad taste.
