EDITORIAL: For sustainable media (07/03/05)

EDITORIAL

For sustainable media

The International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), an international nonprofit research organization that, among other things, specializes in independent media, released a report on June 16 that analyzed press developments in 20 countries in Southeast Europe and Eurasia from 2001 to 2004.

The report, the Media Sustainability Index for 2004, has been billed as the only study that critically examined the entire media sector in each of the countries surveyed, including Ukraine.

Overall, it shows that Ukraine made significant gains in each of the five categories in which it was evaluated. However, even though changes in the Ukrainian press during last year's Orange Revolution were positive, the report also clearly warns that gains in Ukraine cannot yet be called sustainable - that is, that they could survive changes in government, economic fluctuations and shifts in public opinion or social conventions.

"It is too early to say whether these changes will be permanent," the report noted. "There are some signs that journalists have merely switched their allegiance to the new president without committing to fair and objective reporting." Clearly, this is not a positive sign for the Ukrainian press and strong efforts must be made to ensure journalists' independence.

The ownership of national media also makes the triumph of independent journalism less than certain, the report noted. Most national, private television channels and newspapers are controlled by oligarchs and politicians, and historically have served the interests of power.

In the categories of free speech, business management and supporting institutions, Ukraine's scores barely crept over the mark to the classification of "near sustainability." In the categories of professional journalism and plurality of news sources, Ukrainian media fell squarely in the category of "unsustainable mixed system." While the indicators in both categories do show positive signs, they also note that more time is needed before democratic developments in Ukrainian media can be called sustainable.

The report included some facts that we find particularly troubling. Government-owned media receive financial breaks and many receive direct funding from government budgets to cover operating costs. A privately owned broadcast station pays 50 times more for a license than a government-owned broadcaster - $10,000 for a private FM 100-watt transmitter in comparison with $200 for a state-owned one.

The report called the education system for journalists in Ukraine "dreadful and in need of major reform," and the curricula in university journalism departments "archaic."

Though the report found that journalism is a popular field of study, and the number of journalism departments at universities and institutes is growing, graduates are viewed as woefully unprepared compared with graduates of foreign schools.

"Journalism departments produce people with no education," said Lilya Molodetskaya, a member of the Ukrainian panel that drafted the report and an executive director of the Ukrainian Newspaper Publishers Association. "Graduates do not know that articles shouldn't be full of their own opinions, and they don't have any idea how to work with sources and gather information - after five years of study!"

However, the situation in Ukraine should not be read as bleak. The report also showed that Ukraine was not among the list of five countries - Romania, Moldova, Russia, Uzbekistan and Belarus - where the situation actually got worse. Among the 20 countries listed in the report, Ukraine placed fourth in terms of the percent change of average scores from 2001-2004, with only Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia placing above Ukraine.

Late last year, in the span of only a few months, Ukrainian journalists underwent a dramatic change, effectively eschewing an age-old Soviet dictate that said they should report and write what their superiors demanded. They did so in order to report what they believed was the truth during the Orange Revolution. This is a change in Ukraine that must be made permanent.

"As the dramatic events in Georgia and Ukraine have shown, there is a strong correlation between free media and democratic government," IREX President Mark Pomar noted in the report. While Mr. Pomar's report comes as a positive indicator for Ukraine, we must remember that a free press works best to assure a vibrant democracy when it is free, and sustainable.

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