Media Sector Nearly Ready For Prime Time

Michael Hedges September 9, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Since Croatia’s accession to European Union (EU) membership this summer, nations with aspirations to join the European club have a long wait. The EU hasn’t forgotten them; it’s the arduous process. For six countries, all more or less adjacent to Europe and all formerly in the Soviet orbit, the EU has organized a special outreach program to cement ties or at least to build rapport.

The EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) aims to urge these post-Soviet nations – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – to embrace further European integration. Some like the idea. Some want to argue about it. There’s a similar plan proposed by the Russian Federation so each country is looking for the best deal. The big EaP Summit will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania at the end of November at which EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton wants agreements signed.

Ahead of that Summit and bearing in mind the EU’s determination to see the integration of media policies, a report was released in Kyiv, Ukraine (September 3) on the status of media freedom in the six nations. Georgia was ranked best, followed by Moldova, Armenia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Belarus. Details of the report have not been available but media plurality and the degree of government control over news outlets seem to have been part of the criteria.

Georgia’s media sector has undergone the full range of turns and twists since leaving the Soviet Union in 1992. Last year’s presidential election campaign saw debates and scandals all playing out on television and behind the scenes. Since the election of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili news outlets have come and gone, many accused of political bias. Georgian public broadcaster (GPB), seen as a tool of the previous government, has had to seek loan relief to pay its taxes and debts to the European Broadcasting Union.  The 2013 IREX Media Sustainability Index (MSI) ranked Georgia as “near sustainable.”

That media freedom ranking for Moldova is, respective of others in the EaP group, unsurprising given close cultural and commercial ties with EU Member State Romania. IREX MSI observers noted “some optimism,” with all indicators save business management improving since 2009. Politically, the government of Moldova would like the EU to apply pressure on the break-away Transistra region that has attached itself to Russian interests.  

Armenia is least likely to sign the EaP agreement, largely due to support from the Russian Federation in the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial dispute with Azerbaijan. IREX MSI observers ranked the media sector as “near sustainable,” noting issues with public broadcasting independence and private media ownership transparency. Armenia also went through elections in the last year, with OSCE observers noting “overall balanced media coverage.”

As the largest of the six nations – and arguably most significant to the EU – Ukraine’s media sector is commensurately large. The country’s media watchers groused about the low ranking in the EaP report, blaming media owning oligarchs and timid investigations into attacks on media workers. “The media is solely a monopoly in the hands of oligarchs,” said Institute for Mass Information Director Victoria Syumar, quoted by agency UNN (September 4).

”A shift can take place only if the government changes,” offered Ukrainian Catholic University media program director Otar Dovzhenko. “Indeed, the degree to which Ukraine has slipped…(is) due to the actions of the authorities…degrading civil society and placing the media community in deep crisis. I also think the (EaP agreement) generally will have no effect, even if something is signed.”

In terms of media integration it’s noteworthy that public or State broadcasters in all six EaP nations are full members of the European Broadcasting Union, presumably dues paying, but only two – Ukraine and Azerbaijan – have hosted the Eurovision Song Contest.

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