Alexey Blyuminov: The Maidan victory brought tightening the screws instead of freedom
Alexey Blyuminov, political commentator, Kyiv
Instead of the expected freedom, the Maidan victory brought even greater tightening of the screws in the media. Proof of this is today's news of a search in the editorial office of the Vesti newspaper and the Reporter magazine.
Attempts to de facto close Vesti are a logical step in the general process of tightening the screws and the onset of censorship in post-Maidan Ukraine. Unfortunately, the initial hopes for some kind of democratic trend in the country’s development were not justified. Instead, we see an attack on freedom of speech on all fronts.
First, under the pretext of the Crimean crisis, the broadcasting of Russian channels that provided consumers with an alternative government view of events in the country was banned. Then the authorities took strict censorship control over Ukrainian television channels, which are now operating in a mode of military propaganda that would be envied not only by Kiselyov, but also in some places by Goebbels himself.
Today you will not find a single opposition TV channel in Ukraine. This is not about criticism of, say, Tymoshenko from the position of Poroshenko or vice versa, but about criticism of the regime itself, its legitimacy, and the policies it pursues. “Free” Ukrainian journalists cannot afford to use taboo topics and even taboo words. For example, calling a “junta” a “junta”. Or doubt the validity of the state propaganda’s assertion that we are in a state of war, that Russia attacked us and is waging war on us in the Donbass.
Even under Yankukovich there were opposition channels. And even on pro-government channels, journalists had the opportunity to express an alternative point of view. But today they do not have such an opportunity.
But even this kind of tightening of the screws is not enough for the current government. After all, there are still “gaps” in the information field through which objective information reaches information consumers. Hence these convulsive attempts to squeeze Russian Lifenews out of the country under ridiculous charges. And now the attack on “Vesti”.
This is a popular newspaper, distributed free of charge in the capital, and has a radio division. For example, Akhmetov’s mouthpiece “Segodnya” considers “Vesti” as its number one competitor in the market.
The charges against Vesti are based on the fact that Gazprom is among its investors. At the same time, “vigilant patriots” are not embarrassed by the work in the Ukrainian information field, for example, of such structures as Ukrpravda or Hromadske TV, which are financially dependent on Western investors and grant givers. It turns out that Russian investments are bad, but American or European ones are good.
The question “why” is not even asked.
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