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Citing anti-Ukrainian activities, the country’s parliament (Verkhovna Rada) passed a resolution (October 4) asking the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to sanction the founders of television channels 112 Ukraina and NewsOne. The proposed sanctions are extensive and include blocking assets, preventing capital transfers from outside Ukraine and intellectual property rights transfers. The crux of the recent controversy is the appearance of a pro-Russian commentator interviewed on a talk show hosted by notable Ukrainian TV personality Savik Shuster.
“I do not see any problems in considering this issue promptly," said NSDC secretary Oleksandr Turchynov, quoted by Ukrinform (October 4). "This is terrorist activity. Promotion of terrorism is an element of terrorist activity.” He said the sanctions would only apply to the channels founders as they have complicated ownership structures involving “non-residents of Ukraine.”
In April, 112 Ukraina was acquired by Swiss domiciled Plirofories AG, a financial management firm principally owned by Eduard Katz. He is reportedly “close” to Ukrainian politician/lawyer Viktor Medvedchuk who, in turn, is close to Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin. NewsOne is reportedly owned by Andriy Portnov, said Ukrainian Pravda (October 4), who served as deputy head of administration in the government of Viktor Yanukovych. He is currently a resident of Austria. Mr. Yanukovych resides in the Russian Federation. Both channels are considered “pro-Kremlin,” said independent media portal Media Detector (October 4). (See more about media in Ukraine here)
“112 Ukraina and NewsOne received a lot of warnings due to their violations,” noted regulator National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting member Serhii Kostynsky to Media Detector (October 5). “It is very difficult to prove that a channel is engaged in Russian propaganda, when the abstracts of the propaganda are voiced by guests, and also (when the program is) live on the air and when there are also those with another point of view.”
Hungary’s news media has, largely, become sycophant for prime minister Viktor Orban, his right-wing Fidsez party and other related forces. Vestiges of critical news reporting keep drifting away; the fight for independence just too difficult. But each new blow - or fear of the next - takes a toll.
On Monday (October 1), independent news portal went off-line. Two weeks earlier its sales-house, CEMP-X Online, was acquired by Index.hu ad sales manager Gabor Ziegler and Jozsef Oltyan, reported Reuters (September 24). They also acquired a company owned by long-time Index lawyer Laszlo Bodolai, a subsidiary of which is a non-profit foundation serving as publisher of Index. As with much of Hungarian media ownership and operations there are several convolutions, including ties to Lajos Simicska, who exited his media holdings several months ago including support for Index. (See more about media in Hungary here)
“We would like to work peacefully,” said chief editor Attila Toth-Szenesi, when the acquisition was announced. “It is not good for anyone for us to be the news.”
Index was only off-line a few hours. It reappeared with an explanation from Mr. Toth-Szenesi: "On Monday morning we did something unprecedented: we switched Index off for a time so that those who consider it important get a glimpse of what it would be like without us.” He also announced a crowdfunding initiative, which, according to Reuters (October 2), raised HUF10 million, about €31,000, the first day.
Digital publishing stormed onto the media landscape, lo those many years ago, offering grand promise. The first to pain traditional publishers would be a bevy of new, often rowdy, competitors built on links, likes, queries and many points of view. Only a few of those survived into stage 2.0 and many of those - the brands, at least - were acquired by the grand masters of the publishing world.
The second grand promise had particular appeal to publishers: cheap. Gone would be trainloads of newsprint, grumpy printer and truck driver unions and ink by the barrel. An added bonus would be lot of new fresh faces in the newsrooms without benefit of union contracts or, even, working per piece.
Then enter stage 3.0: digital remorse. Ad revenues were minuscule compared to the premium rates publishers had grown to enjoy. Time for a new strategy.
“We have seen that digital journalism is today more expensive than printing and distributing newspapers,” said big Swiss publisher Ringier AG chairman and chief executive Marc Walder to the Swiss Media Forum in Lucerne, quoted by media portal Klein Report (September 29). “With digital journalism you can earn money but only with far fewer publications than there are today.”
Stage 4.0, he said, is consolidation or, at least, collaboration. Ringier and big German publisher Axel Springer formed a joint venture several years ago to publish in several countries. “It takes big steps up to shoulder conclusions between publishers.”
And, too, business has changed radically. “We have radically tried to become less dependent on journalism,” he explained, quoted by Swiss news portal persoenlich.com (September 28). “But we did not say goodbye to it.”
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