Public broadcasting head Alasania dismissed

The supervisory board of the National Public
Broadcasting Company of Ukraine decided on Jan. 31 to pre-emptively dismiss
Zurab Alasania from his post as chief executive officer of public broadcasting.
The vote was 9 to 3, reported his deputy, Svitlana Ostapa, on Facebook. The
dismissal comes after alleged pressure by the Presidential Administration
against the channel for broadcasting the Skhemy investigative journalism
program, which exposed the alleged corruption of Petro Poroshenko. The claims
were first made by two leading investigative journalists as early as three
years ago.

Afterwards, Alasania published on Facebook a draft of
the supervisory board’s decision, in which it criticized him for several broadcasting
decisions. They included not showing the cross procession in the recent
ceremonies establishing the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, as well as not
broadcasting the president’s appearances at the United Nations and an economic
forum. The document criticized Alasania for failing to organize the channel’s
content as “informational and social-political content with educational
elements,” as he is required to do. As a result, the channel didn’t broadcast
in a timely manner, or didn’t show at all, these events with the president’s
involvement, the document said.

In response to the dismissal, a group of independent
journalists, identifying themselves as members of the Stop Censorship movement
under former President Yanukovych, posted a statement demanding Alasania’s
reinstatement. “We consider the supervisory board’s voting to be a disgusting
display of cowardice and subservience,” the statement said. “We demand the
immediately canceling of the vote results and the dismissal of the supervisory
board’s current membership, whose actions have threatened the reforms in public
broadcasting in the country and have created a dangerous precedent of
dismissing the leaders of independent institutions owing to political motives,”
said the group, calling itself Initiative 34.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who is not backing
Poroshenko’s re-election, characterized the dismissal as a provocation and a
restriction on the freedom of the press.

Zenon Zawada: President
Poroshenko has developed a reputation of using authoritarian tactics throughout
his term, and we believe this latest dismissal is consistent with his approach.
He needs to consider, however, that in possibly gaining control of the content
on this television channel, he risks a further loss in reputation for silencing
political dissent and objective journalism.

Poroshenko also needs to consider his loss in
reputation among Western authorities for such a move. Yet he’s likely confident
that he has the full backing  of the West – which will give him a slap on
the wrists for such moves – in light of the high risks to Ukraine’s
geopolitical future posed by his two leading challengers.