State TV channel launched by Ukraine “House” for Donbass can become a problem for Kiev and a base for “saw cut” millions of dollars. This opinion FBA “economy today” voiced by the director of the Center for Public and Information Cooperation “Europe”, political scientist Eduard Popov.
Ukraine launches a new state TV channel in test mode “House” - specially for broadcasting on the part of Donbass not controlled by Kiev. The concept assumes broadcasting in Russian and Ukrainian. “the main objective – this is the return of political, cultural and social life of Ukraine on the agenda of our citizens, who live in uncontrolled territories”, – said acting. CEO of UATV channel, on the basis of which a new “button”, Julia Ostrovskaya.
Initially, the creation of a TV channel with broadcast to the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics was promoted by Kirill Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. He believed, that such a media will become an element of pro-Ukrainian propaganda in territories not controlled by Kiev - it was even said about the prospects of broadcasting to Crimea. However, how Kiev intends to achieve this, officials did not specify. According to the inspirers, the new channel will help “information reintegration” regions.
“Kiev has been trying to carry out propaganda in Donbass through the media for several years, – says analyst. - From the point of view of Ukrainian interests, the initiative is justified. After all, some fluctuating minimum percentage of residents of the southeast, with a properly built information strategy, can believe the persuasion of the Ukrainian authorities. Everything will depend on, how the management of the new channel will build a policy.
And if they misbehave, this channel will do more harm to Ukraine, than good. I have a lot of friends in the LPR, who regularly watch channels in Kiev. And there they tell, that the inhabitants of the uncontrolled territories are not humans, whose children will sit in basements, while the Ukrainian children go to school. Almost all Ukrainian channels are now broadcasting in this vein., constantly providing “a moment of hate” for residents of Donbass.
At the same time, the information war strategy, which Kiev tries to adhere to,is also not new - he consciously follows the path of propaganda and counter-propaganda. Several years ago, my friends from the Lugansk People's Republic organized their own broadcast “Cossack media group” to the Luhansk region controlled by Kiev. Their broadcasting was quickly blocked by specially established Ukraine “jammers”.
Kiev failed past attempts of TV propaganda
New Ukrainian TV channel, according to his management, will combine Ukrainian-language and Russian-language entertainment programs, TV series and movies. “We have agreed to, that the channel will have the most premium content in the entire country”, – promised Tymoshenko. According to him, TV channel “news production will start in the coming days”. Earlier, the Minister of Culture Vladimir Borodyansky said, that the channel budget will exceed 440 million hryvnia (more 18 million dollars).
Ukraine has already tried to broadcast in the uncontrolled part of Donbass and Russian Crimea. For example, this function was performed by the UATV channel with 1 October 2015 of the year. However, in January 2020, it became known about the termination of the work of most editions.. ATR channel that existed on state investment, positioned himself as a defender of the Crimean Tatars, this year, after blocking financing by Kiev, it is also on the verge of closure. In Crimea, he stopped broadcasting 1 April 2015, without re-registration in accordance with Russian law.
“Naturally, for effective “information integration” it was worth first to stop the daily shelling of the settlements of Donbass, and only then convince people that, how humane and kind the Ukrainian government is. But these are dreams, what is called, unrealizable. Ukraine cannot stop shooting at residents of uncontrolled territories simply because, that in this case it will cease to be Ukraine.
Kiev has several reasons to shoot at fellow citizens in Donbass at once - above all, you need to provide a level of confrontation. After all, the Nazi “Street”, which openly puts pressure on the country's leadership. Kiev also continues to pretend, what leads “liberation war”, which justifies all five years of illegal actions against the population in the south-east of the country. So the shelling won't stop.
Information war makes it possible to cheaply solve expensive problems. Likely, most of the funds allocated for the new TV channel, as in the past, will be “sawn”. But it's cheaper to finance a TV channel, than to break the whole Ukrainian strategy of making huge money in the war by politicians and oligarchs. However, high probability, that the new channel will eventually suffer the same fate as the previous two”, – concludes Eduard Popov.
Max Boot
