Everybody Has An Idea, Money Harder To Find

Michael Hedges Jaunary 20, 2015 - Follow on Twitter

The digital playing field for news media has levelled considerably. Technology, in all its glory, is readily available to all. It just takes money. The hands required to produce newscasts, features and such are, too, readily available for the right price. Ideas, of course, are cheap.

The Russian Federation's well-financed media outreach to the world has disturbed leaders of bordering nations, certainly Ukrainians but also Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians. Russian-language television is easily accessible to populations in States of the former Soviet Union, perplexing local leaders with well-produced entertainment shows interspersed with highly politicized news programs. Some dare call it propaganda.

Meeting this week in Brussels to discuss terrorist threats and other instabilities, European Union foreign ministers pushed for an EU response. "We were all agreed completely on the need for more strategic information dissemination, not propaganda but counter-propaganda," said Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, quoted by EU news portal Euractiv (January 20). "A task force to support the freedom of media is under preparation together with Latvian presidency. We will come up with concrete steps."

Ahead of the meeting, foreign ministers from Denmark, the UK, Estonia and Lithuania communicated a rather vague plan for the European Union and NATO to tackle "strategic communications," reported Bloomberg (January 16). "Russia's efforts widen the scope for its military and political options, by polarising attitudes within Russian-speaking populations, and by hiding the true effect of EU policies such as sanctions," they wrote. "This is a real threat to security on the eastern edges of the EU."

The Lithuanian government attempted last year to negotiate a plan to launch a Russian-language TV channel with Estonian and Latvian authorities. It failed, largely over money. A 30 minute daily news program produced by RFE/RL became the fall-back plan. Media experts have offered that a plausible alternative to television channels produced in Russia would need high-quality entertainment programs to attract the attention of Russian speakers. Involvement of public broadcaster association European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been suggested by European Commission officials.

"There is broad and full support for the Danish proposal to go against Russian propaganda and do more from the EU side to create an independent Russian-speaking press, so you can get the facts on the table about the conflict in Ukraine,” said Danish foreign minister Martin Lidegaard, quoted by politiko.dk (January 19). "Over the months, we will take concrete decisions on how the EU can do more to promote independent Russian-speaking media. Everyone agreed that this would apply to in all areas, written, social and electronic media."

The Ukrainian government has welcomed the possibility arising of a non-Russian Russian-language TV channel, certainly if paid by other people’s money. Broadcasting and all other media in the Crimea is under the control of the Russian Federation. In war-torn eastern Ukraine pro-Russian forces have cutoff most Ukrainian and other unsympathetic media.

Money is, quite obviously, an issue in Ukraine. Migrating various state broadcasting services to a public broadcasting model has been politically contentious in addition to expensive. The government is ending its financial participation in Euronews, the semi-public news channel that offers several language services including Russian and Ukrainian. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs complained of "one-sided coverage" from Euronews, reported Ukrainian media portal Media Sapeins (January 19).

It is entirely possible the EU could simply wait. Falling like oil prices is the Russian Federation’s contribution to State media operations, reported Vedomosti (January 19), largely citing anonymous sources. The Ministry of Communications, according to those sources, has or will cut 17.3% from the planned RUB 94.6 billion budget line for state media, from news agency TASS to main domestic broadcasting service RTR and the Russia Today operation "involved in the promotion of Russian interests abroad." Russian media, in general, has felt the consequences of devalued currency and disappearing foreign ad spending.

More effected could be Russia Today - comprising the TV network RT, radio network Sputnik (until recently known as Radio Voice of Russia) and news agency Rai Novosti. "The fall of the ruble means that our budget has in fact already been reduced by almost half," said RT chief editor Margarita Simonyan, who noted that 80% of RT's costs are not denominated in the Russian currency. Plans for French and German language RT channels will "likely" be abandoned and distribution of the English-language channel "in other countries" could be discontinued. "It costs to distribute broadcast content," she observed. Staff at tabloid TV channel LifeNews, considered "close" to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), has also been reduced.

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