COMPLEX POLITICIAN AND GIFTED POET ONCE AGAIN IN THE LIMELIGHT
Considering the latest trends in Russian-Ukrainian relations and Kyiv’s forced backpedaling, the immediate threat to the Russian-language press in Ukraine is past, at least for the time being. Any radical decisions at the top are also highly unlikely, because pouncing on Moscow under the circumstances would not only be useless, but harmful. Still, the problem is not off the agenda; it is adjourned to an uncertain date, while remaining a matter of public debate.
And this debate is headed in the wrong direction, with the result that both the Ukrainian and Russian media come out with twisted interpretations of what is actually happening to the constitutional freedom of expression in Ukraine. Ivan Drach, a perfectly harmless public figure who has actually no means of affecting the situation, is portrayed as the evil genius hunting down this freedom. Indeed, he was careless enough to make himself the whipping boy, but dirty pool is still disgusting, and the main media players remain in the shadows.
On the other hand, the Derzhkominform [State Information Committee] made its top priority an issue which is important but does not now rate such status. The language problem is far from the uppermost on the Ukrainian media’s mind. All our periodicals, Russian-language and Ukrainian- language alike, ones originating in Ukraine and those coming from Russia (even multilingual ones, if and when the need arises) have to deal with overall democratic tasks, above all those aimed at enhancing the freedom of expression, creating the economic conditions under which this freedom could be guaranteed, including a liberalized legal framework and adequate political culture.
Meanwhile, the Moscow press and political beau monde regard the problems faced by a dozen or so Russian media outlets as a total onslaught on the Russian language.
This author would like offer his own multilateral view on the issue of the Russian-language media in Ukraine, the view of a Russian-Ukrainian journalist with editorial experience in Moscow and Kyiv; one equally knowledgeable about the Russian and Ukrainian elite; a private individual involved in and with the appearance of yet another Russian periodical in Ukraine, albeit in an abridged format.
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
While working for almost a year as editor-in-chief of Kievskie Vedomosti, I was of course interested in Ukrainian-Russian newspapers, from both the creative and commercial standpoint.
Here I will object to Derzhkominform’s formal statement accusing the in Russian media of unfair competition. I denounce this statement as a person who has competed with precisely such publications for a year. Their success is explained purely by market demand. People read them primarily by force of habit. Under the Soviets, their press runs numbered into the tens of millions. Theirs are superbly promoted brand names. So why should their current owners discard the practice?
Secondly, there is high market demand for first-hand information from Russia. Many Ukrainians still regard Moscow as the Center. The situation in Ukraine in many respects depends on what is happening in Russia. The Russian elite looks more spectacular than the Ukrainian one, although this is in large measure due to the fact that the Russians know how to sell themselves, and this means that the Ukrainian reader finds Russian material more attractive.
All those “purely” Ukrainian media outlets cannot measure up for some reason or another. Some of them (numerically insignificant) prefer to ignore the issue altogether, for what they claim are “patriotic reasons.” Others offer second-hand information, meaning inferior quality. There are actually three or four special Ukrainian correspondents in Moscow really active, yet the Ukrainian press is spilling over with “analytical materials” on Russia. More often than not, such articles are written by people who visited Moscow ten years ago, at best, and who can boast personal contacts with maybe Zhirinovsky (because he happened to visit Kyiv at the time, God knows why).
Information about Russia is dug up browsing the Internet. Under the circumstances, the inquisitive Ukrainian reader will prefer real first-hand information. The Ukrainian media cannot and do not want to take the initiative in cultivating such genuine sources of first-hand information in Russia.
LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE
Finally, I must admit that Russian editions are more professional and interesting. The fact that their journalists can write better is not the real problem. The problem is that their freedom of the press appears to be more effective than what you have in Ukraine. Of course, they have their bosses, and they know that the one who pays calls the tune. Unlike Ukraine, all this is not brought to the absurd in Russia where there is still a reasonable balance kept between the founder’s and editor’s interests. I will even risk stating that the reader remains the top priority in Russia, and that the cutthroat competition among various Russian media outlets seriously narrows the scope of what can be hushed up.
All those doubting this can verify it by reading several issues of Boris Berezovsky’s Kommersant with its scandalous exposures relating to none other than Mr. Berezovsky. Can you imagine a Ukrainian oligarch willing to bear such publicity?
Another example: several Russian media outlets are officially registered in Ukraine, offering very topical, freely critical features relating to Russia and being markedly cautious, carefully edited in what little they offer about Ukraine. I think this is one of the main reasons why, apart from economic considerations, the editors keep Ukrainian inserts to a minimum, which sometimes runs counter to the parent companies’ strategies in Moscow (they want all such periodicals to keep their coverage as regionalized as possible). Well, they remember the adage, let sleeping dogs lie.
LET THEM WRITE
It would be naive to expect the expulsion of several hundred thousand copies of Russian periodicals from the Ukrainian media market to result in boosting the local periodicals’ circulation, because the “Muscovites” are not at all to blame for their lamentable condition. Everybody understands that Ukrainian books were destroyed not by Russia, but by the stupidity of Ukrainian bureaucrats. Now it is easier to publish a Ukrainian book in Moscow and then have it shipped to Ukraine than struggle to publish it in Ukraine.
Thus crowding Russian media out of the Ukrainian market will
