Criticism of the “Single Telethon” in Ukraine and concerns about the state’s monopoly of the Ukrainian television space have been voiced again from Europe. However, in the third year of the war, more and more Ukrainians are raising this question.
At the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the Single Telethon was necessary and even played an important stabilizing role. When the enemy broke through in nine regions, when we were suffering losses and no help was coming, it was important that the nation did not see the full scale of the disaster, did not panic and did not lose faith. And then it helped us recover and fight back.
If we recall the events of the ATO, when some Ukrainian TV channels were owned by Medvedchuk and most criticized any actions of the government, sowing betrayal and disbelief, we can only imagine how the media, which already exaggerate the scale of problems for the sake of sensationalism, would have presented the situation of the Russian invasion in February-March 2022. At the beginning of the ATO, even such shocking events as the appearance of DPR militants on a national TV channel, who were broadcasting their own propaganda via video link on the most popular talk show while the host politely asked what their position was.
Ukrainians were lucky that in 2022, oligarchic TV channels did not show us the “other point of view” where they would talk about “fascists” in Ukraine and the goals of the “SVO”. Back then, Telethon protected Ukrainians from both the massive amount of false Russian propaganda and internal political strife at a time when it was time to consolidate.
But years passed and the Single Telethon, in the absence of any competition, began to “lose ground.” Due to various circumstances and funding from European partners, the Ukrainian monopolized TV broadcasting has become as refined as possible, devoid of subjectivity of one’s own opinion and somewhat detached from the national patriotism that was important in the times of the struggle for independence.
Instead of enlightening historical TV programs that would show Ukrainians how our people have been abused by Moscow for centuries, instead of charismatic patriotic speakers, instead of informative programs on media literacy, etc., Ukrainians mostly continued to be shown “talking heads” – a dozen balanced, positive and cautious experts on video. In between, they showed footage of the Ukrainian Armed Forces firing, blue and yellow flags, rescuing people and cats.
Unlike private TV channels, which can broadcast their own and extraordinary opinions, a democratic state, even in times of war, can rarely afford intolerant statements about the enemy. As a result, the Ukrainian airwaves have turned into a low-content and neutral stream of state-funded, censored information, whose biggest “sin” is inefficiency.
Having watched monotonous and frankly “toothless” broadcasts that avoid the most pressing social problems and mostly show only good things when it is time to show people a little more truth, the Ukrainian viewer has moved to Telegram and You Tube. And it is there, in the free and diverse information space (including Russian propaganda), that our enemy has directed the point of his attack.
Knowing that state television “does not tell the whole truth,” Ukrainians began to listen to pseudo-experts, scandalous bloggers, hype eaters, and even political psychics who presented shocking, extravagant, false, but interesting information, while Telethon broadcast the same positive blue and yellow picture for years.
As a result, those private TV channels that remained on the air show much more lively and interesting stories than the journalists of Telemarathon, who were deprived of competition and mothballed by state regulation. We wanted to do the best, but didn’t know where to stop in time.
The current version of “United News” needs to be convincingly reformatted, because such scarce budget money allocated to the “Telethon” no longer converts to the original impact on the viewer, who has moved from the sweet positive on TV to the online space of betrayal and scandals that undermine the stability of the Ukrainian state.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk