Interim Research Report
1. For example, according to the 1999 national survey by the Socis-Gallup
Ukraine, 38,7% of the respondents were rather against land privatization
and 37,3% rather favored it. What is more telling, is that the share of
those undecided remained almost the same during 7 years of transition –
26,7% in 1993 and 23,3% in 1999
2. The TV channel "Inter" is controlled by the Social-Democratic
Party of Ukraine (United) (SDPU (o) which has been set up by the
financial-oligarchic group headed by Mr. Surkis, the owner of the football
club 'Dinamo-Kyiv' and, reportedly, the semi-criminal 'oligarch', and Mr.
Medvedchuk, the current first vice-speaker of the Ukrainian parliament.
The latter is misfamous for his defence of the Ukrainian dissident
during Soviet times - the poet Vasyl Stus. Mr. Medvedchuk worked as an attorney
and he was appointed by the Soviet court to be Stus's attorney. All Ukrainian
dissidents whom I heard speaking about this case insist that Mr. Medvedchuk
betrayed his client and Vasyl Stus has been imprisoned for 20 years or something
like that. He died in the camp. The term has been obviously too long, as
Ukrainian dissidents claim.
The general director of "Inter" is Mr. Zinchenko, the head of the parliamentary
committee on the freedom of speech and information. The respondent
said the 'Inter' has been so attentive to the issues of the land reform because
the President and the SDPU (o) 'were friends' at that time and the TV channel
backed up this 'friendship' by highlighting the land reform pushed forward
personally by the President.
3. The program has been launched by SDPU (o). One of the party's
declared tasks is the legal education of the Ukrainian citizens. Mr. Medvedchuk,
the head of the Union of Attorneys of Ukraine, is especially proud for
this program being initiated by him personally.
4. Source: Silski visti, 02.08.01. As a rule, the subscription
or circulation figures indicated by newspapers or journals themselves are
false, for different reasons.
5. To be true, there is another national newspaper covering large
segment of rural population. It is called "Poradnytsja" and it is neither
the so-called socio-political newspaper nor business-oriented. It falls
into the category of entertaining outlets for housewives and dacha holders.
There are a lot of regional editions of such a type called "Your/My dacha",
"Your land", "Your householding", etc. "Poradnytsja" is the mixture of house
holding advices, horoscopes, agricultural consultations (how to grow cranberries
and the like), entertainment news, etc. As I have been told by the manager
of media-research of the SOCIS-Gallup company, its rural popularity rivals
that of "Silski visti".
6. Interview with the former editor (2000-01) of the regional/national
private newspaper targeting private farmers and owners of large house holdings
(Eastern Ukraine):
...Moreover, the former head of the human resources division of the
oblast state department of agriculture became the head of the oblast Association
of the farmers...
...When they discovered that there is our newspaper
and it is more or less popular, they decided to use us as their information
resource. They came and asked, "Guys, why you don’t write that private
farmers must pay taxes to the state, the state needs taxes...?" I said, "So,
you came on behalf of the private farmers or on behalf of whom?"
OK, it has been just a beginning. I agreed that we
might cooperate. "We will build our cooperation on the following principles:
I’ve got the letter from the farmer who says that his right to get
his property parcel from the former collective has been abused. As you are
here, please, help him. What’s the difference – he is the member
of your Association or not? You’ve got an opportunity to intervene and
to gain the prestige..." So, he left, went to the village and in a day he
comes back and says, "Do not make the publication about this farmer! He is
bullshit, the former head of the collective gives him everything, the head
is for the well-being of his peasants!" He said he spoke with the farmer and
the head... We asked him, "On what grounds did you decide that the head is
right in this affair? – He’s got two children!" I say, "So, the
farmer does not have children? The children are the guarantee of truth?"
After this meeting he started complaining to Janukovich
(the governor of Donetsk oblast – A.M.) and Gurbich (the head of the
oblast state department of mass media and information – A.M.) and claiming
that the newspaper should be closed or the editor should be fired. But the
owner of our newspaper fucked him because the newspaper became profitable
and all the rest was OK...
7. Interview # 1. The journalist of the national newspaper (he has friends
in raion newspaper)
... For example, the raion newspaper is being read
by ... I will now say ... 15% of the raion population. The circulation of
the newspaper is 5 000 copies, the population of raion is 38 000. It is very
simple in those newspapers. They are owned by local state administrations,
and the head of raion or oblast state department of agriculture (or head
of raion state administration) comes to the editor, or the editor comes to
him... And the head tells him that this and that should be covered in the
newspaper. The newspaper agrees and writes songs of praise.
How often do raion newspapers publish information materials for average
peasants? For example, what to do with the land title, how to get it in kind,
etc.?
They publish what the local authorities need. That is to say, if the local
authority wants to keep the collective intact or keep the same farm directors,
then the information given to peasants is minimum: they gather people and
tell them, "So, give your land certificates to the farm director and that’s
all". They do not focus on the alternative paths of the land reform because
the competition in agricultural production, emergence of alternative agricultural
producers is not welcome by the local authorities. Everything and everybody
is interconnected at the raion level... The oblast department of agriculture,
the raion state administration....
How much money does the raion state administration spend to support
the raion newspaper?
I will find out and tell you. But the question is not about money, it
is about whether the local authorities would like to inform about radical
market reforms. If the co-founder of the newspaper is the state administration,
then, probably, the editor would let one radical material publish for
pay. But after the publication the head of raion administration will call
the editor and strongly order him not to publish such materials! Perhaps,
only the following neutral materials could get through: simple information
about main principles of the reform, without concrete exapmles, without telling
that if you do not want to give your land to the former director, you can
do this and that.
8. See, for example, an article "The letters from the village-2001"
by Nikolai Kozyrev, the head of Luhansk committee for defence of human rights
in Svoboda, # 28, July 24-31, 2001