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Ukrainian Broadcasting: A Primer The parliamentary debates over a Ukrainian broadcasting bill have been going on for two years: a proof of attempts to avoid controversial decisions of no immediate importance. The bill would mainly regulate state broadcasting. It is neither welcomed by the State TV and Radio Company, which does not want to be regulated, nor favored by the nationalist opposition, which envisages just one state-owned channel (‘too little for a great country’). Liberals also criticize the bill because it does not give much freedom to the journalists. With an audience of some 50 million viewers, Ukraine has 32 TV sets per 100 inhabitants, fifth among ex-USSR republics after the Baltic states and Russia. (Source: The European Institute for the Media. The Bulletin. Vol. 10, No. 2, June 1993, p. 25.) No private station can buy or own a transmitter of its own, although it can lease one. The State Television and Radio Company of Ukraine (DRTKU), a national monopoly of the communists regime pattern, is located at the following address: 252001, Kiev-1, Khreshchatyk 26. Telephone numbers (international code—7-044): President: 226-3144, Radio: 221-1855, World Service of Radio Ukraine: 228-3664. The total number of its employees is 80,0000 (Source: The Bulletin). The Company’s President is Nikolai Fedorovich Okhmakevich. His short biography is characteristic of many chiefs of broadcasting systems in the republics and Ukrainian nomenklatura in general. The exceptional feature is that he has been the head of republican broadcasting since the Brezhnev era. A reason could be his personal loyalty to President Kravchuk, his leader and colleague at the propaganda department. DRTKU currently operates on a budget of 99 bln. Karbovanets (1993) (at the time of its adoption by the parliament, the sum equaled some $45 million. The budget figure is modified during the year in order to take into account the current inflation of several percentage points a day. An additional $15 million were allocated from the hard currency fund of the republic to import equipment for the new TV center in Kiev. The major advertising agency for the state channels is IP Kiev, a branch of the French company IP. In fact, IP has a monopoly on Ukrainian TV providing 2% of the DRTKU budget. Under the Law on State Language commercials are permitted only if they are broadcast in Ukrainian: therefore all the Snickers and Wrigleys are brought there with the help of Ukrainian verses. Major advertisers are banks, insurance companies, automobile dealers, joint ventures (“Tetrapak,” “Tampax”), tobacco dealers (particularly after the recent enforcement of the ban on tobacco commercials on Russian television). As is clear from the ratings table, non-state TV is highly popular among Ukrainians. While the first stations independent of Gosteleradio appeared just in 1990, by early 1993 there were 918 TV and radio companies, production studios, and channels of this type—a record figure not just in the ex-USSR (for example, the relevant figure for Russia is about 400, for Uzbekistan—just a handful), but for Europe in general. True, some of the companies exist only on paper, and therefore the total broadcasting time by independents is just 800 hours per day. Most of the time is devoted to U.S. movies, cartoons, Western pop music clips and satellite newscasts, usually without regard for copyright requirements. Some of the TV stations (Tonis-Center and Orion in Kharkov, Tet-a-Tet and Channel 7 in Kiev) devote a high proportion of their broadcast time to local programming. Local news and current affairs on these channels are becoming very popular. Ukrainian mass media operate pursuant to the Statute “On Information” enacted on October 2, 1992. This Statute sets forth the rights of Ukrainian citizens in the field of information. It also provides legal grounds for information activities and for follow-up laws such as the Statute “On Printed Means of Mass Information (the Press) in Ukraine” adopted on November 16, 1992 and the draft law on television and radio broadcasting that has passed two readings in the parliament. In a sense, the Information Law serves to other acts on mass media regulation as the Constitution does in the general sphere of law-making. The Information Statute consists of six chapters and fifty-four articles. The chapters establish the general principles of information (articles 1-11), the legal bases of informational activity (12-16), types and sources of information (17-41), rights and duties of participants in informational relations (42-44), protection of information and responsibility for violation of the legal acts on information (45-49), and international informational activities (50-54). The term “information” is defined as “documented or publicly-announced news on events and occurrences that take place in society, the state and the environment” (Article 1). In this sense it also deals with broadcasting as a mass information medium providing publicly disseminated . . . audiovisual information” (Article 20). The Statute governs “informational relations that appear in all spheres of life and activity in society and the state while obtaining, using, disseminating and preserving information” (Article 3). According to Article 5, the main principles of informational relations are as follows:
Article 6 also sets forth the main goals and means of the state information policy. They are as follows:
The key article in the introductory chapter is probably Article 9, which states the essence of the right of information. It says:
The Statute on Information places restrictions on information flow by saying that “[i]nformation may not be used to call for an overthrow of the constitutional order, a violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, or as propaganda for war, violence, cruelty, fanning of racial, national, religious enmity, or as an instrument to violate human rights and liberties” (Article 46). These limitations go beyond those in the 1992 draft Constitution. The same article safeguards state “and other secrets stipulated by law,” as well as “information regarding medical secrets, bank deposits, profits from enterprising activity, child adoption, correspondence, phone calls and cable message, except when law stipulates otherwise.” The Statute identifies the cases of possible violation of information acts (Article 47), but does not specify the punishment. Important for the communication rights of the population, as well as for the development of international cooperation of Ukraine in the sphere of broadcasting, is Article 50, which states: “citizens of Ukraine have the right to free and unrestricted access to information from foreign sources, including direct television broadcasting, radio broadcasting and the press.” Andrei Richter Table 1: Ukraine’s territory covered by TV channels
Source: Govoryt’ i pokazue Ukraina, Oct. 10, 1991 Table 2: Ukrainian TV Channel Ratings
Sources: *Larissa Fedotova “Radio I televidenie v perelomnyi period” (Radio and TV in Transition). (Data of Public Opinion Foundation, April ’92), Moscow, 1992, p.34. Respondents could name several favorite channels. The figure for non-state TV here is comprised of the figures for “Cable TV” (18) and “Other local channels” (24). **1st figure: Izvestia, 1992 Feb. 17, (Data of Ostankino Sociological Service.) Respondents could choose only one channel. 2nd figure (in brackets): Vsevolod Vilchek Ostankinsky meridian. Role of Ostankino TV Company in the Regions of Near Abroad. Unpublished report (data of Ostankino Sociological Service, January, 1993). Used with permission. Respondents were naming regularly (more often than once a week) watched channels. *** A. Kizilov. et al. ATV: god spustia (ATV: One Year After), p. 5, (Data of Kharkov’s branch of Ukrainian Sociological Association in April ’91.) Unpublished report. Used with permission. Respondents could name several channels. |
Last Updated: 11/20/99 |
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© 1999 Post-Soviet Media Law &
Policy Newsletter |
