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On March 10, 2022, the state enterprise International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine (IBMPU), together with leading Ukrainian media groups, began production and broadcasting of the FREEDOM information project in Russian. For a year on the air, the FREEDOM channel has become an effective tool for destroying Russian propaganda and a source of truthful information about Ukraine for Russian-speaking viewers abroad.
In the conditions of the first days of a full-scale invasion, the state’s decision to strengthen and expand Ukrainian foreign broadcasting in Russian was motivated by the vital need to use every opportunity, to tell the truth about Russia’s war against Ukraine to Russian-speaking people around the world and to counteract enemy propaganda as quickly as possible, which at that time was firmly rooted in the media and social landscape not only in Russia but also in the world.
The correctness of this decision is evidenced, on the one hand, by the indicators and geography of FREEDOM for the year, feedback from viewers, assessments of our experts and partners, public and state figures in Europe and the United States, and on the other hand, constant hacker attacks on Ukrainian foreign broadcasting sites, blocking “Roskomnadzor” of our websites and channels on the territory of the Russian Federation, the hysterical attacks of Russian propagandists against the channel.
“A year ago, all decisions were very fast and intuitive. Since February 28, we have reoriented our Russian-language channel UATV (now FREEDOM, – ed.) to information broadcasting and added digital platforms of Ukrainian foreign broadcasting in English and Arabic to it. We immediately saw a high demand for such content from abroad. And after a few days they realized that in order to respond to it as quickly and efficiently as possible, you need to pool resources with colleagues. And when I look at the statistics of our views for the year, I see how it grows, who watches us, what topics come in better, I am convinced that the decision of the state to launch FREEDOM was timely and necessary,” says Yulia Ostrovska, general director of the state enterprise Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine (IBMPU), which includes the FREEDOM TV channel.
“Whether we like it or not, the niche of Russian-speaking viewers in the world is more than 200 million, and almost half of them are not from Russia. Actually, this was one of the reasons why we developed foreign broadcasting in Russian even before the full-scale invasion. Our enemy has been successfully pouring billions of dollars into propaganda directed at these people for decades. Today, when at least democratic countries are trying to free their media space from this octopus, in my opinion, it would be short-sighted not to try to fill this niche with our TV product, including the Ukrainian foreign broadcast of the FREEDOM channel. Because somehow I really don’t want the world to talk about Ukraine without us, especially in Russian,” Yulia Ostrovska continues.
The content of the FREEDOM channel very clearly meets the needs of the Russian-speaking audience abroad. Over the year, materials under the FREEDOM brand on the digital platforms of the IBMPU and on the platforms of our partners – Ukrainian media groups 1 + 1 media, Starlight Media, Inter Media Group – received 6.5 billion views, more than 76% of them – not from Ukraine.
On the platforms of the International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine (IBMPU), the average per year rate of views not from Ukraine is 87%, and for certain materials, it can exceed 90%. At the same time, on average for the year, 51% of views outside of Ukraine on Ukrainian foreign broadcasting sites are viewers from Russia. In addition to Russia, the top countries in terms of FREEDOM views in digital include Kazakhstan, Belarus, Germany, and Uzbekistan. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, and Nizhny Novgorod became the leading cities on YouTube.
“We know the full agenda both in Russia and in some of the Russian-speaking communities of the world. We are focused on scientific and sociological data, on the information needs of the audience, which are blocked by censorship and satisfy our viewers with facts. Our most popular stories are about mobilization in Russia, about the conditions in which Russian prisoners of war are kept. Many Russian speakers learn about the crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine thanks to our channel. There is a colossal feedback from Russian citizens about the violation of their rights, repressions, and the decline in the standard of living in the country. Thanks to a deep understanding of the processes, we have begun to deeply influence the situation in Russian society – sociology already testifies to this,” says Oleksiy Matsuka, editor-in-chief of the state enterprise Inernational Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine (IBMPU), which includes the FREEDOM TV channel.
The video of the FREEDOM channel more than 30 times a year fell into the trends of Russian, Kazakh, and Belarusian YouTube. Among the topics that generated the most interest were:
- addresses of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky;
- broadcast of Joe Biden’s speech during a visit to Poland;
- the truth about mobilization in Russia and information on how to avoid it;
- analysis of the message of the Russian president to the Federal Assembly;
- forecasts of the fate of Putin and the transit of power in the Russian Federation;
- coverage of the actions of the Belarusian partisans.
The most popular was the story with the appeal of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky about mobilization in Russia. It collected 2.7 million views, 95% of which were not from Ukraine.
Our experts and partners, public and state figures of Europe and the USA, and representatives of the Russian and Belarusian opposition speak about the importance and effectiveness of the FREEDOM channel.
The official representative of the US State Department, Andrea Kalan, has repeatedly noted that disinformation from Russia works not only in this country, but also in the West, and it is extremely important to fight it, which is what the FREEDOM channel does.
Ainars Latkovskis, a member of the Latvian Seimas, tells how FREEDOM helped change the perception of some of his compatriots who were under the influence of Russian propaganda about what is happening in the Ukrainian war.
“It was very interesting to see with specific examples how the perception of what is happening in this war has changed. People began to understand that in Russia they are lying. People simply stopped watching Russian propaganda,” says Ainars Latkovskis.
In turn, Franak Vyachorka, senior adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, notes that FREEDOM helps Belarusians overcome the information vacuum and not be left alone with Russian propaganda.
For constant communication with our viewers, the FREEDOM channel team launched a chatbot in Telegram, which people can contact to report a violation of their rights. Such a communication channel is especially important for residents of Russia and Belarus.
In 2022, the Ukrainian state foreign broadcasting has significantly increased its presence abroad in cable, DTH, IPTV networks, OTT platforms, and on satellite. Today the FREEDOM channel broadcasts via 6 satellites covering the whole of Europe, the European part of Russia, Central Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. The channel is included in the packages of 10 OTT platforms and is also present in more than 700 cables, DTH, and IPTV networks in 44 countries, 20 of which were added in a year.
The International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine (IBMPU) team also monitors Russian propaganda narratives and prepares a weekly analytical report that provides a holistic picture of Russian propaganda, tools, and practices to combat it.
