What's wrong with the media in Ukraine and should Telegram be banned?

She’s making me cringe.

This is my appeal to people, to bodies that are somehow involved in regulating the Internet and regulating Internet media (as part of it).

Dear leaders, we cannot continue to live like this.

There cannot be a media market, a media environment, where official Internet media bear responsibility for every piece of content, and huge TG empires bear no responsibility at all.

It cannot be that for the same advertising contacts, they compete on equal terms:

• media that pay taxes, that employ journalists who go to events, communicate with speakers, verify information, and bear full legal (and sometimes moral) responsibility for it;
• and the type of media that lives off copy-paste (wipes content from the media), is not registered, does not have an official legal entity, does not pay taxes, does not keep people on staff and, most importantly, simply destroys the Ukrainian information space with leaks and dirty showers, setting people up for panic.

This is not a media market. What the hell, sorry.

«Citrus» and «Yabko» refuse to advertise in «Trusha» after ATB after they learned that «Trukha» began to slander former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. And that’s good. At least something. But it’s a drop in the ocean. There is still a large list of official companies that are comfortable advertising on this network of TG channels. And most likely, they will continue to do so. Not them, but others.

When the new media law was first discussed, I was strictly against regulating the Internet media based on double standards. We see these and regulate them, but we don’t know what to do with these. Or maybe we don’t want to know.

In the end, that’s what happened. The law further widened the gap between black and white media.

We (dev.ua) have been an officially registered online publication for a little over a year. But to be honest, we would be better off without such a status. During this time, we have already received two orders from the National Council for minor violations. The first was for not informing the National Council on the change of director on time (we notified ourselves without reminders, but a little later), the second order was for not posting our registration number on the website. Of course, ignorance of the law does not exempt us from responsibility. But as a media outlet with a little over 10 people and a lawyer who lives near Sumy, we do not always monitor all the nuances of this new regulation for us. And of course, we do it unintentionally and quickly correct everything.

But somehow I think that one day instead of a warning, we will get a fine for such a minor violation.

I am outraged by these double standards — I repeat it again. TG channels take away a large part of the official media’s income from advertising, but they do not live by these rules, as we do.

They don’t read these regulations, they don’t pay these fines. TG channels in Ukraine are in complete disarray.

Last year, our media outlet fined Playcity almost UAH 5 million for announcing the fight with Usyk and for mentioning the GGbet brand (just mentioning that it became an official partner of the event, without links, calls to play, etc.). We were the first media outlet to receive such a large fine.

We were in complete shock and despair.

With our turnover of 1 million UAH per month, such a fine would mean inevitable bankruptcy.

But the authorities didn’t care. Frankly, they didn’t care.

Before us, the Trukha TG channel was fined the same UAH 4.8 million. For real posts about casinos, for a real million-strong audience that watched this advertisement.

It’s like they put us in the same row, you idiot! But here too, it’s not quite.

We have never written about betting in our media, nor have we encouraged gambling. The most we did before the complete ban on advertising was to help find IT specialists to work as developers of online gambling games.

What am I getting at? All this is about the attitude towards the media in Ukraine. It is becoming frankly crappy.

Did Trukha pay this fine? Where are the courts? Haven’t you heard? Of course. And you won’t hear.

I’ll tell you a little bit of our story, so as not to burden you too much. And it’s so hard for everyone.

So, we went to court last fall. We filed a lawsuit, had our announcement with GGbet examined by a state agency. They independently confirmed: there were no calls to play, no bets.

And what do you think? Were the proceedings opened for us on time? In 5 days? No way. I went to court for a month and just begged to open the proceedings — assistants, secretaries… Everyone promised me and did nothing. And when Playcity went to the Executive and blocked our accounts in December — it happened almost instantly.

Why? Because, I repeat, there are double standards. And it’s really annoying.

I simply did not believe it. We then turned to familiar journalistic unions in Europe and they helped us reach the Council of Europe. There is a special platform there that protects the rights of journalists. And it then made a statement on its website about dev.ua. It consisted in the fact that the state poses a threat to the existence and uninterrupted operation of our independent media.

I sent this alert to the Ministry of Digital Affairs. I received a reply. I called Playcity and they said that «it’s nothing at all.»

The Ministry of Culture officially responded to the alert at the time. Its response is posted at the link. But do you know what is key in this response: the Ministry of Culture wrote that we were not media! This was written by the same Ministry of Culture that two years ago let me, a media representative, go abroad for a conference.

And this is again about the attitude of the authorities towards the media. Once again: they simply wipe their feet on us. This is our attitude towards the Ukrainian media during the war. Which do not lose heart! Which shape the Ukrainian agenda. Which support businesses, and in general the mood of the people. Which leave entire teams of journalists in Ukraine. Media that work not for the money of the oligarchs, but for their own, every penny collected from advertising!

Our minimum rate for advertising is 5500 UAH. Of course, there are also larger contracts. But try, go and collect this million every month! Which goes to salaries, taxes and coworking.

This is super hard!

Authorities, maybe it makes sense to provide grants for small media outlets? So that they can survive?

Are you okay with that? And even with the TG scum, are we an awesome state?

The other day, by the way, we lost the first instance in Playcity. As the lawyers tell me, the judge didn’t ask anything during the debate. She wasn’t interested. And then she went to consult with herself. For a week! And then — a refusal.

Yes, but why do anything? For some reason it seems to me that the global decision was already made by the authorities a long time ago. And the decision, something tells me again, was simply this: kill. Don’t let us survive.

I honestly thought until last year that not all was lost. I wrote, among other things, to Mikhail Fedorov, who at that time headed the Ministry of Digital Affairs (to which Playcity was subordinated). I tried to get to the logic. Why kill the media that writes about the digitalization of the country? That writes about artificial intelligence and helps implement it in business?

In my opinion (of course biased), this decision was against the interests of Ukrainians. It was in the interests of the system, a stupid machine that grinds everything in its path.

I heard from Mykhailo that the law is the same, it will be the same for everyone. Ok, I heard. I was indignant, but somewhere inside I agreed.

But that didn’t happen. The law isn’t for everyone.

We still don’t advertise gambling. But I see a lot of gambling advertising around: articles, special projects, videos, affiliate texts. I think you see it too.

Are they fining anyone but us? No. What Mykhailo said didn’t happen. Pleasity went through Instagram bloggers and fined the Tribuna sports ground. And many other media outlets live for themselves and quietly make money from gambling. Not to mention the TG channels, which are not subject to the law at all.

Do you understand the situation? If you work officially and don’t have an influential uncle, you will be overwhelmed: small and even someone crossed your path. If you work unofficially, all paths are open.

What is this? Some strange, mutant form of free speech?

There should be freedom, but there should also be responsibility for this freedom. In all parts of society. Not selectively.

I do not advocate a ban on TG. I advocate equal rules for the dissemination of information in Ukraine. It is high time to start working on this. We should not turn a blind eye to this! I advocate equal and wise regulation of all media. But not selective.

Now it is selective! I emphasize this.

And yes, I’m for Mykhailo. As a person, I support him. And I believe that such people are really capable of bringing us change, sooner or later.

But I’m not creating an idol for myself. We’re all human, we’re all imperfect, and we’re all in the same boat. We’re all in the same boat. If we start drowning each other, we’ll all drown.