This was the topic of a discussion organized by the Independent Public Press Center "Volyn Choice – 2006." Its active participants were not only representatives of the most active regional organizations of political parties, but also journalists of Volyn media themselves.
At the very beginning of the round table, a statement was made that the media cover most of all the party that is in power. Has nothing really changed since "those" pre-Orange times? And what is the role of journalism in the modern socio-political life of the country?
"The party is satisfied with the coverage of its activities in the media," noted the deputy head of the executive committee of the Volyn regional organization of the "People's Union Our Ukraine" party, Mykhailo Nakhod, "but there is no analytics. We would like to hear criticism from Volyn media." According to Mr. Mykhailo, most media have switched to commercial levers, which is why the phenomenon of paid journalism exists today.
The first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, People's Deputy Stanislav Pkhydenko, is convinced that Volyn journalism differs little from the capital's and informs citizens about the activities of officials, commercial structures, and so on, completely forgetting that real problems exist at the grassroots level. In his opinion, today there can be no free press, since such a thing cannot exist at all: "Journalism is of a paid nature. It is serviced by the authorities, who also create the party." Stanislav Semenovych emphasized that there are no analysts either at the Volyn level or at the capital level, because well-known analytical publications (for example, "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia," "Po-kyevsky") and journalist-analysts (like Pikhovshek) are also financed by someone.
The chairman of the Volyn regional organization of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, Mykola Milinchuk, emphasized that journalists, particularly Volyn journalists, "need to reconsider their place in society, overcome fear, and return to covering political life in the region."
"We must move away from thinking templates and not talk about parties in power and parties not in power," noted the editor-in-chief of the socio-political weekly "Volynska Hazeta," Volodymyr Danyliuk. In his opinion, it is necessary to act in accordance with the law, which provides for cooperation between journalists and political parties on the terms of concluding contracts. As for analytics, Mr. Volodymyr is absolutely convinced that there is none in Volyn. So-called analytics in the press is simply paid articles in which one party is the best.
Misunderstanding and antagonism in the journalistic environment, according to Volodymyr Oleksiiovych, are caused by the parties themselves when they choose one or another partner. As a result, each individual mass media outlet is seemingly "assigned" to a certain party. The editor-in-chief of "Volynska Hazeta" sees several ways out of the situation. First, advertising for one party should not exceed a certain percentage relative to advertising for other parties; second, a special fund should be created to finance the work of a journalist-analyst.
Continuing the thought, the editor of the information department of the newspaper "Lutsky Zamok," Sviatoslav Lesiuk, noted that local media are poor and cannot pay for political analytics, so they are forced to conclude contracts with political parties for the placement of their information, which is always positive.
"The newspaper must be independent," noted the deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Viche," Ihor Chub, "but for this, the state must have a high standard of living so that citizens can buy a newspaper at a price that covers at least its cost."
The chairman of the Volyn regional organization "National Alliance," Andrii Bokoch, believes that if each party does more and holds interesting events, the media will definitely report on it.
Anatolii Horbatiuk, chairman of the Volyn regional branch of the Party of Regions, is convinced that today freedom of speech costs quite a lot and only paid materials are published. "Not everything is so simple with the coverage of opposition parties; people are afraid of publicity," noted Mr. Anatolii.
The correspondent of the "Western Information Corporation," Vitalii Buriak, made a bold reproach to Stanislav Pkhydenko as a People's Deputy regarding the draft law on reducing taxation for Ukrainian media and publishing houses, which has not been adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for nine years already. In his conviction, as in the conviction of most Volyn journalists, it is precisely the absence of this law that causes the media to be unable to support themselves and forced to wait for funds from parties.
Journalists are convinced that the currently effective Law "On Elections" was adopted without their knowledge and has "tied" their hands even more.