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Ukraine - Media Landscape

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine relinquished its monopoly ownership of media outlets and ended official censorship. The practice began to re-emerge, though, in the late 1990s.

Since the Orange Revolution, there has not been much structural change in Ukrainian media. But there has been a considerable improvement of press freedom. According to the investigation of Freedom House, an organisation which investigates the level of press freedom in each country, Ukraine has changed from a tightly-censored country into a partly-free country. However, there are still cases of abuse toward journalists.

Print media

The first independent newspapers and magazines began to appear in Ukraine shortly after the introduction of the Soviet Media Law in July 1990. The number of publications registered has been growing steadily ever since. While there were 1,787 different titles registered in 1990 in Ukraine, this number had risen to 2,450 by 1992. By the beginning of 2002 over 15,000 printed and electronic publications were officially registered in the country, with 5,696 newspapers and magazines among them. Yet, it is difficult to estimate the exact amount of actually published nowadays (some have never been produced and others no longer exist). The daily press is the largest part of the printed media in Ukraine with its 72.4 circulation percent. The majority of the printed and electronic mass media takes place in the capital city of Kyiv. Nevertheless, about 64 percent of printed media circulation occurs at the local level in twenty-six regions. The most subscribed newspapers in 2002 were:

Silski Visti (The Rural Times) - a Kiev-based opposition daily newspaper presented in Ukrainian with the circulation of 560,340;

Holos Ukrayiny (The Voice of Ukraine) - a daily newspaper published in Kyiv, with the circulation of about 170,000;

Uryadovyi Kuryer (The Government Messenger) - a daily paper printed in Ukrainian by Cabinet council of Ukraine with circulation of 101,904;

Komunist (Communist) – the newspaper presented in Ukrainian and Russian, with circulation of 92,739;

Ukrayina Moloda (Young Ukraine) - a newspaper printed in Ukrainian with circulation of 84,485;

Robitnycha Hazeta (Workers’ Newspaper) - printed in Ukrainian with circulation of 71,283;

Pratsya I Zarplata (Work and Salary) - presented in Ukrainian, circulation - 49,899;

Tovarisch (Comrade) - printed in Ukrainian and Russian, circulation of 29,821

and many others. Since many people buy newspapers retail, the real number of circulation, certainly, may be much higher for some publications because of a lot of people buy newspapers retail.

The most influential newspapers in Ukraine are: Dzerkalo Nedili (Weekly Mirror) – a weekly publication in Ukraine, which provides some of the best political analyses of Ukraine, Uryadovyi Kuryer, Kyiv Post (a leading English language publication, covering business, politics, and society), a tourist newspaper 6 Kontinentov (6 Continents), AVISO (The free-ads paper in Ukraine), Segodnya (Today) and Fakty I Kommentarii (Facts and Comments) are Russian-language tabloid newspapers that nowadays have over 700.000 subscribers, Vseukrainskiye Vedomosti (All-Ukrainian Official Reports) – an independent newspaper printed in Russian, Golos Ukrayiny (Voice of Ukraine), Den’ (Day), Pravda Ukrayiny (Ukraine’s Truth), Robitnycha Hazeta (Workers’ Newspaper), Slovo Bat’kivschyny (Word of Fatherland), Ukrayins’kyi Futbol (Ukrainian Soccer) and, of course, Argumenty I Fakty v Ukraine (Arguments and Facts in Ukraine) and Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine (Komsomol Truth in Ukraine) – concerning last two, those are only Ukrainian versions of Russian papers that are only marginally different from that in the better-known Russian versions. Besides Ukrainian and Russian, Ukrainian and English, the press is available in German and many other languages, including those of indigenous domestic minorities. Besides, there are few free newspapers, among which - 15 Minut (15 Minutes), Obzor (Survey) and Vecherkom (In the Evening) - that are being released only on working days and are presented in Russian language. The number of non-daily newspapers in Ukraine is 1.106.

Well-read magazines in Ukraine include Natali magazine, with a circulation of 688.220; Edinstvennaya, with a circulation of 320.000, and VIVA!, which boasts a circulation of 100.000. It is important to mark a significant number of magazines addressing social, political, scientific, entertainment, and informational technology issues, that are published in various domestic and foreign languages: Motor News, Office, Sobstvennik (Owner), Internet UA, Aviatsiya I Vremya (Aviation and Time), Bankivs’ka Sprava (Bank Information), Vokrug Sveta (Around the World), Delovaya Zhizn’ (Business Life), Zovnishnya Torgovlya (Foreign Trade), Naturalist and many others.

Official, state-run and independent news agencies are also available in Ukraine. The official news agency is the Ukrainian National Information Agency, which offers political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and sports information. Independent news agencies include: Respublika, and the Rukh Press, of which the latter is affiliated with the Rukh party, InterFax, which is a larger news agency and others.

Broadcast media

In terms of audiences and advertising revenue, television is the most popular medium in Ukraine.  According to the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, there are 791 licensed television and radio companies in Ukraine, 28 of them are state owned. 522 (63 percent) either do not broadcast or are closed. There are 59 cable television companies, which maintain about two million subscribers. The vast majority of television and radio stations are regional or local, including 322 television stations, 417 radio stations, and 44 combined television and radio broadcasting stations. The state-owned Ukrainian National Radio Company is the only station to have 100 percent national coverage. Other major stations included Nashe Radio (Our Radio), with 46 percent coverage, Dovira (Trust), with 33 percent, and Gala-Radio with 28 percent. Ukrainian radio stations transmit foreign radio programs from the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe, Radio Canada, and Voice of America.

UT-1, owned by the National Television Company of Ukraine, is the only truly national television station, with coverage of more 98,4 % of Ukrainian territory. The 5 other major stations broadcast over a significant portion of Ukrainian territory and are thus considered ‘national’: Studio 1+1 has 98,7 % coverage; Interhas 99,1 % coverage; Novyi Kanal, STB, and ICTV each maintain about 94 % coverage. The three stations with largest coverage, UT-1, Studio 1+1 and Inter, account for nearly 90 % of television advertising profits, with the remaining 10 % divided among the other 828 stations. According to AGB, a television audience data collection company, for August 2008, Inter enjoyed 19,17% of the average market share, Studio 1+1 17,05%, Novyi Kanal 7,64% , ICTV 7,12% , STB 6,08% and UT-1 2,11% . Regional stations enjoy a much smaller market share and largely broadcast programs relevant to local interests. Russian channels such as ORT, RTR, NTV, and TV-6 air via cable and satellite and some programs are retransmitted on Inter and other regional companies. Western Ukraine receives Polish, Czech, and Hungarian television programs.

Next to the state-owned channels, a wide variety of private channels are available. Private TV Inter TV is a national broadcaster since 1996 and has the largest audience. Another example is ICTV, a commercial network, which used to be owned by Head of the National Bank of Ukraine and businessman Petro Poroshenko and is now partly owned by son-in-law of ex-President Kuchma and a Labor Party parliamentary deputyVictor Pinchuk, that also maintains heavy investment in Novyi Kanal, STB, and М1. STB is the Ukrainian commercial television network. The Studio 1+1 is owned by Central European Media Enterprises Company. An SDPU(u) leader, Hryhoriy Surkis, owns TET, an important Kyiv local and regional station which reaches 12 % of the nation. The Inter is a result of investment of many stockholders, among which we can mark Roman Abramovich. NTN is a television company owned partly by Eduard Prutnik, a former advisor to Victor Yanukovich, who was ran for president in the 2004 elections.

UTR, Ukrainian Television and Radio is a state-owned channel for foreigners living in Ukraine. Its programs are subtitled in English. Near the borders of the country some foreign channels can also be received from Belarusian networks or some Russian channels.

Ukraine has several different radio stations. These broadcast in the ether and can be found online. The National Radio Company of Ukraine is the publicly-funded radio station, operating three channels. One of the most important radio channels is Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty., which was established in 1949 as a nonprofit private corporation to broadcast news and current-affairs.

The Internet provides many radio stations for Ukrainian citizens, such as BBC Ukrainian.com and again Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Among other very popular radio-stations are:
Radio Sharmanka, Europa Plus, Galaradio, Radio Kyiv, Radio One, Jam FM Kyiv, UR-1, Radio Shanson, Radio Renaissance, Lux FM and many others.

Online

Ukraine has experienced an Internet boom in recent years. Currently there are over 500 authoritative online newspapers, but the more popularity gained so-called Internet blogs, total amount of which goes up to 260,000. Most of the news sources are independent and are not associated with political parties or other interest groups unlike Internet blogs – websites that are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. More than half (55 %) of Ukrainian websites are run by media outlets and news agencies, 23 % belong to political parties, 14 % host forums and news sites, and eight percent are personal pages.

Ukraine has more than 320 online newspapers and journals, and most major print media have online versions.

The most popular Internet media source is the virtual magazine Korrespondent.net and Ukrainska Pravda is one of the best independent online news portals. The Ukrainian blogosphere has enlarged twice its number in the past year. Among the original Ukrainian popular bloghostings we can mark Blog.i.ua and Blog.meta.ua. However, many Ukrainian citizens prefer to use Russian bloghostings, as well, such as Liveinternet.ru, Blog.mail.ru, Livejournal.com and Diary.ru. One of the most popular Kyiv blog websites is Kiev Ukraine News Blog that provides current news from all over Ukraine.While the total number of users in Ukraine has also grown to almost 10 million, only about 12 % them use the Internet regularly, its major part are men (83 %) between the ages of 20 and 29 (48.9 %).

Many of the television channels and radio broadcasts have their own websites. These websites are mostly in either Ukrainian - studio 1+1, Kievskiy Telegraf and Politika I Kul’tura - or in Russian - 15 Minut, APK Inform and Business Information Network. Only some offer an English version of their website. forUm and InterFax-Ukraine have a multi-langual website. The online Russian daily Kommersant is available in English and Russian. UkrainaTV is an online TV-channel.

Telecommunications

According to a market study by the analytical agency iKS-Consulting in July 2008, the number of mobile connection users in Ukraine ran to 55,350,000 people, that is more than country’s population. Only about 58 % of them are active mobile connection users. About 90 % of those are at the age from 20 to 29 years old.

Learning and support

Although there are relatively many departments of journalism study in different educational establishments of Ukraine, only 30 % of graduates of all universities, special schools and colleges find jobs and make careers in a journalism area.

• National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev
  Institute of Journalism
• National University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy
  Faculty of Journalism
• Kiev International University
  Journalism and TV Art Institute
• Lviv University
  Faculty of Journalism

Unions

The largest agency which claims to defend the rights of journalists is the Natsionalńa Spivka Zhurnalistiv, or National Union of Journalists. It has been a member of the International Federation of Journalists since 2002.

Resources

• Freedom House
• Press Reference
• Library of Congress
• GfK Austria GmbH Marktforschung
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• University of Kiev
• University of Lviv
• National University of Kiev
• Kiev International Univeristy
• Ukrainian National Information Agency
• Kennan Institute
• Press Reference
• Slavuta: creative association of Ukraine mass-media (N/A)

Contacts

Ukrainian National Information Agency
Bogdan Khmelnytsky Street 8/16
Kiev, GSP, 01001
Ukraine
E-mail:
Website: http://news.ukrinform.ua/
Website: http://photo.ukrinform.ua/

InterFax
Reitarska Street 8/5a
Kiev
Ukraine
Tel.+380 442 707 465
Fax +380 442 706 569
Website: http://www.interfax.ua/

National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv,
Volodymyrska Street 64
Kiev 01033
Ukraine
Tel.: +380 442 3933 33
Fax: +380 442 898 391

National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Skovorody Street 2
Kiev 04070
Ukraine

Kyiv International University
Lvivska Street 49
Kiev 03179
Ukraine
Tel.: +380 444 506 31
Fax: +380 444 248 618
E-mail:

Ivan Franko National University of L’viv
Universytetska Street 1
Lviv 79000
Ukraine
E-mail: