Can Journalism Be Saved in Ukraine?
In Ukraine, a country where the media sector is dominated by a handful of oligarchs, it is hard for independent journalism to survive. The most popular television channels are controlled by four media behemoths: Media Group Ukraine, 1+1 Media, Inter Media Group and StarLightMedia, which also own numerous news portals and radio stations. All these groups belong to oligarchs.
Their media not only shape the public opinion and political preferences according to their interests, but also control the largest part of the wealth generated in the Ukrainian media industry. These are some of the findings in a new report recently released by the Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS).
In such a captured environment, can anything be done to save independent journalism or is independent reporting possible at all? Olesya Grabova, the author of the CMDS report, Galyna Petrenko of the Ukrainian media outlet Detector Media, and CMDS’ Director Marius Dragomir addressed this question and many more in a debate moderated by Eva Bognar, Senior Program Officer and Researcher at CMDS.