EDITORIAL: VOA broadcasts cut to Ukraine (02/08/04)

EDITORIAL

VOA broadcasts cut to Ukraine

An article on page 1 of our newspaper this week reports that the Ukrainian radio service of Voice of America will reduce its daily broadcast from two hours to one hour daily, effective on March 1 of this year, eight months prior to presidential elections in that country. In scaling back this most valuable service, the United States has effectively explained that it has more pressing matters in other parts of the world and it cannot afford to continue its current level of funding for one of the few independent media broadcasting to Ukraine.

Frankly, this decision appears ill-timed, poorly thought through and completely counter to America's repeatedly stated interest of seeing a democratic Ukraine. While we understand the need to provide similar services in other parts of the world, the United States should not assume that the current political situation or the state of the media in Ukraine merit any less attention.

Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst also has acknowledged just how bad things have gotten for those members of the Ukrainian press trying to provide an accurate picture of the events unfolding in Ukraine.

"To better control the information available to the public, 'special attention' is paid to those media that dare to criticize authorities. Tax inspectors, building inspectors and the police tend to find more problems with these media. Advertising revenue has a habit of drying up. Paper becomes harder to acquire, along with printing services. For some brave journalists unwilling to play along, there are more decisive measures. One of the great scandals of Ukraine is that principled journalism is a very dangerous profession," Mr. Herbst said in a speech delivered on December 23, 2003, at the Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.

Well-known and highly respected Ukrainian journalist Andrii Shevchenko told the Verkhovna Rada a year ago that "television news coverage in Ukraine is made by remote control. Let us admit honestly: instead of news coverage, Ukraine gets lies. Because every half-truth is a lie, and there should be no illusions about that."

The non-governmental organization Freedom House, in an October 2003 special report titled "Under Assault - Ukraine's News Media and the 2004 Presidential Elections," wrote: "The level of current trust in the media is simply so low that the vast majority of the electorate does not believe it can rely on the media for professional and truthful election coverage. ... The stakes for Ukraine and the region are high enough - and the media such a crucial element in the equation - that virtually any action in this field is worth the investment."

In explaining the reductions made to the Ukrainian Service, VOA Director David S. Jackson said in an e-mail message sent on February 3 to staff members of the International Broadcasting Bureau, the organization that provides administrative and engineering support for VOA, that his organization "will retool its programming and expand its multimedia capabilities. Together with an improved Ukrainian language 'Window on America' TV program, the service will be well positioned to provide full multimedia coverage of this year's presidential elections, both in the United States and Ukraine this coming November."

Mr. Jackson's use of the term 'multimedia' is disturbing and possibly misleading. We can only hope that Mr. Jackson's plan for being "well positioned to provide full multimedia coverage" will include more than reporting done via the Internet, as we believe he realizes that a majority of Ukrainians have no access to the Internet. The majority to, however, have access to radio.

Ultimately, we hope that the United States understands just how important an active and free press could be in the months leading up to the presidential election. But by cutting the broadcast time for VOA's Ukrainian radio service at a time when Ukrainian authorities are taking drastic measures to alter the process by which a president is elected, we must wonder just how much the concept of a free press as the foundation of democracy means to the United States.

Overall, Mr. Jackson's statement strikes us as dubious because it largely seems to imply that VOA intends to do more with less at a time when what it really needs is the manpower and resources to provide uncensored and meaningful information to the million Ukrainians who tune in to VOA radio broadcasts.

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