Ukraine regulator proceeds with Russian TV ban – the Eurovision connection

Michael Hedges October 30, 2008

Relations between Ukraine and Russia are complicated. About half Ukraine’s population is, well, Ukrainian and reflexively supportive of Ukrainian language media. The rest of the country, predominantly eastern and southern Ukraine, is Russian speaking… and predisposed to watching TV channels from Russia. The broadcasting regulator wants Russian channels off the cable systems.

Not everybody agrees with a ruling by the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting effectively banning major Russian channels from Ukraine’s cable systems. The ban is effective November 1st. Ukraine’s parliament passed legislation in March 2006 banning rebroadcasting. It has never been enforced.

The intention, said the law “On Television and Radio,” would have foreign broadcasts carried in the Ukraine adapted to Ukraine, meaning Ukrainian language. As the deadline moved closer – and the NCTRB remained intent on its implementation – a bit of a diplomatic crisis erupted…adding to the continuous diplomatic crisis between Ukraine and Russia. Then, too, Ukraine’s political factions – Western vs. Eastern – seem in a permanent row…parliament being dissolved and new elections called. Owing to Ukraine’s current financial crisis the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) voted against funding new elections (October 29) and voted for accepting a € 13.2 billion IMF loan.

Some observers believe Western-looking Western Ukraine would like those Russian TV channels off the cable systems – which tend toward a Russian viewpoint – well before the elections. NCTRB deputy head Ihor Kurus said “the rule does not just apply to Russian channels,” quoted by Kyiv Post (October 29).

Mr. Kurus, writing in telekritika.ua (October 28), said NCTRB was not banning the Russian language; “myth one.” Referring to the Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television, he said Ukraine’s law is meant to satisfy copyright provisions of signatory States, which would not include Russia, China, the USA and others. “Programs from those countries are required to match legislation from Ukraine.”

In the same article, Mr. Kurus got to the heart of the matter: the Eurovision Song Contest. It seems that over the last two years a sizable portion of Eurovision Song Contest viewers watched the satellite feed from RTR Planeta, a Russian State channel, rather than Ukrainian public TV “causing losses for the National Television Company of Ukraine.” Moscow will be the host city for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

Other widely mentioned Russian channels to be cut off include Russian State channel ORT and privately owned REN TV, minority owned by RTL.

Ukraine’s cable operators seem in universal opposition to the ban…if it goes into effect at all. “Half the people will accept it,” said Ukrainian Union of Cable Television general director Oleksander Shvets, “and half will find a way around it.” Ah, yes, satellites and internet break all the rules.