Today at 17:17
The editor-in-chief of the FREEDOM TV channel Oleksiy Matsuka explained the principles of the Ukrainian foreign broadcasting channel in different languages. He told how the Ukrainian TV channel, which also broadcasts in Russian, has become a source of information instead of the propaganda of the Russian TV channel Russia Today (“Russia Today”) — it is through it that Moscow promotes aggressive ideas abroad. Matsuka explained the importance of introducing the principles of media literacy in Russia, even under conditions of complete dictatorship, and how the foreign broadcasting channel helps in this.
– Why has the world tolerated the existence of Russia Today for so long? And even now, when misanthropic theses are heard on this channel, it continues to broadcast.
– Yes, it broadcasts, and quite confidently in the UN countries that vote against draft resolutions in support of Ukraine. This is all a complex Russian system of foreign broadcasting and its influence. For example, to support the policy of aggression against Ukraine, against the European Union, Russia Today is allowed to work in such countries.
The story about the definition of the concepts of “journalism” and “propaganda” has been going on since 2014. I have participated in many discussion panels, various meetings, formats, including at the OSCE venues, where they were looking for justification – why should Western countries close or block Russia Today and similar media? And only when they saw the burning Kyiv and the bombed-out Ukrainian cities, it suddenly dawned on someone in Europe that, perhaps, disinformation is spreading through these channels, and we are thus losing the defense of a European state that seeks to become part of the European Union.
I think that a lot has changed after the authorities that regulate the media markets of European countries or the UK itself reacted with the corresponding bans on Russian foreign broadcasting.
“Now the main thing for us and for our channel is to destroy the monopoly and privatization of the Russian language and news in Russian, which Russia has arranged throughout the world.”
The audience has a request for Russian-language content. But the Russian federal system of media coverage existed for many years before that, and, unfortunately, the European Union ignored our recommendations to limit the influence of this monster. Now Ukraine must independently build, in fact, reconfigure the entire media market. But it’s okay, I think we can handle it ourselves.
— Has the world learned enough from the actions of such channels as Russia Today?
— Ukraine has embarked on the path of developing media literacy of its population since 2015. The Ministry of Education of Ukraine has begun to introduce media literacy standards not just as a separate course in schools, but, for example, in history lessons. Now the Russians have a manipulative interpretation of the same events of World War II. Therefore, they must be sure to indicate that there is such a thing as media literacy, where interpretations of an event by various political forces or geopolitical players could be used.
If, for example, these events took place in the 70s, for example, I do not know how the Ukrainian society would react to such things. But now there is an opportunity to take media literacy as a course in Ukraine, and in the EU countries, and in Britain, and in the USA. It is easier for the generations that are learning to figure out how such harsh, aggressive manipulations, and politically biased things are implemented by politicians like Putin, for example, or his assistants, like Surkov. Do you remember that Putin was talking about his interpretations of the historical context for two hours? It was all like reading historical fiction, which in a real school where science is the basis of the educational process would indicate his low level of media literacy.
We are ready to share with the population of Russia in the future, when they get rid of the dictatorship, the developments of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
“I think that in Russia they will revise their history textbooks, which should be based on a scientific basis, and not on fiction, which, apparently, Vladimir Putin once read for fun somewhere on the beach. I think that in the future the Russian population will take a media literacy course.”
– Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said earlier about expanding the number of languages in which foreign broadcasting will work. Can you tell more about this?
– Foreign broadcasting in Russia is Russia Today, a channel that operates abroad. Each country has such information channels. In Ukraine, it was the UATV channel, now it is you and me, this is the FREEDOM channel. The symbolic word, I think, for all of us and for our audience is “freedom”, which, in general, reflects today’s Ukraine and everything that is happening.
Oleksiy Danilov expressed an absolutely logical and consistent idea for the development of Ukrainian foreign broadcasting, among the goals of which is to increase the number of language versions. And one of the first priorities is, of course, English. Our English-language broadcast channel is available 24/7 on YouTube and other platforms. We are currently in the process of upgrading and improving it. In journalism there is never a limit to perfection and quality improvement. And Ukrainian foreign broadcasting also adheres to the same positions on this issue. We do not see for ourselves any final point of development, which will be the final one for us. Ideally, this is an English-language coverage of as many countries as possible with a Ukrainian perspective on events.
— Oleksiy, how does such a foreign broadcasting channel as FREEDOM help the world to better understand the essence of Ukraine, and the aspirations of our country?
— I communicate with many European and leaders of different public opinions. Previously, Ukraine was feared as a corrupt country. Allegedly, some incomprehensible procedures are taking place in our country, a war, some kind of conflict processes. In many ways, this story was created by a certain “bubble” of experts. But when we faced a real war, a real invasion in February, and when the world saw the reaction of the top military-political leadership to this problem, then the territory of “incomprehensible attitude” towards Ukraine from Brussels, Berlin, Paris or Washington, it became “the territory of its own “.
Now Ukraine is perceived as clear, understandable and transparent, thanks, among other things, to the effective actions of the top military-political leadership, which, from the first day of the Russian invasion in 2022, has set a course that defense will be carried out to the last. And that there is neither Kabul nor Afghanistan, that this is a European country, that people here are highly motivated. Our society is so consolidated thanks to all the previous years of the existence of our democracy. Still, we now have the sixth president and the country is so stable with a change of power that we will be stable for another thousand years.
— There is a lot of all sorts of propaganda content in Russia. Why is the FREEDOM TV channel also watched there?
– People have different motives, they are looking for information. Now in Russia, many are mobilized illegally. Basically, it is really illegal mobilization from all points of view. It’s good when materials appear that help a person understand that Russia has an authoritarian government with a developed kleptocracy, that it is corrupt and is guided solely by its own mercantile or commercial interests, and not by the interests of society. People look and sometimes just out of desperation to understand the plan for themselves – what to do next? What is the depth of the fall? Where to fall next? How to get out?
Our channel can provide in-depth analytics about what is happening in Russia for the Russians themselves, like no other. I think this is the main motivation, because their federal channels do not respond to this request. They only broadcast a story that helps the authorities to stay afloat and make money on it, becoming even richer. Clan-oligarchic groups develop corruption, and the media are either closed or in exile, and they do not have the same reach as we do.
“FREEDOM is a state channel, and we, in fact, from Kyiv today perform the function of the Ostankino tower of a healthy person. We are not a private channel and not a commercial one, we are not a small blogging product.”
We are an institution that is responsible for what we have on the air. And our leaders are also responsible for this. We are watched, among other things, thanks to the principled position of our presenters.
