For the primary time since reaching independence in 1991, Ukraine has ranked among the many prime 100 international locations on the planet for press freedom, in keeping with Paris-based Reporters With out Borders.

However observers and journalists on the bottom in Kyiv paint a extra nuanced image of the previous Soviet state’s media panorama.

Though Ukraine climbed six spots in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index, it’s partially as a result of press freedoms are in decline elsewhere.

“We will speak about some relative progress of Ukraine — certainly, we’re within the first hundred international locations when it comes to freedom of speech, and that is for the primary time in our historical past,” mentioned Sergiy Tomilenko, chairman of the Nationwide Union of Journalists of Ukraine.

“On the similar time, I’d not overestimate these few factors,” he mentioned.

Tomilenko nonetheless sees room for enchancment.

“There’s freedom of the press in Ukraine. Nevertheless, there’s a lack of unbiased media,” mentioned Ukrayinska Pravda editor Sevgil Musaeva, who has run the nationally outstanding digital outlet since 2014.

Some 85 % of Ukraine-based publications and broadcasters are managed by oligarchs, he mentioned, who use them primarily as automobiles to advance their very own political pursuits.

“This can be very troublesome to outlive on this setting, [especially] for the small variety of unbiased media organizations,” he added. “There isn’t a honest competitors.”

‘White noise,’ ‘heat baths’

Hromadske TV co-founder and deputy editor Nastia Stanko mentioned though Ukrainian journalist take pleasure in substantial press freedoms, a perpetual “white noise” of dueling narratives and disinformation can cloud protection.

“It’s troublesome for individuals to determine the place the reality is,” mentioned Stanko, a recipient of the Committee to Shield Journalists 2018 International Press Freedom Award.

That makes some Ukrainians extra prone to belief rumors circulated on-line by bloggers or bots than tales reported by conventional information shops.

“The media hygiene could be very unhealthy,” she mentioned.

Victoria Sumar, former chairwoman of the parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech, says skepticism of conventional mainstream shops has lots to do with the truth that they’re largely owned and run by oligarchs.

“If we have a look at one of many largest corruption tales on the web and social networks as we speak — ‘Yermak’s recordings’ — the large channels have been silent about it,” she mentioned, referring to a series of leaked videos that appear to implicate Denys Yermak, the brother of Zelensky’s Chief of Workers Andriy Yermak, in corruption.

“And it’s comprehensible, since Andriy Yermak, the pinnacle of the presidential workplace, has a critical affect and is the primary negotiator for Ukrainian oligarchs and channel house owners,” she mentioned.

“The authorities need to keep in heat baths,” she added, utilizing a time period to explain information media protection that by no means asks troublesome questions. “And media house owners actively organize and promote such heat baths for them.”

“Ukrainians are already used to the TV channels saying what their house owners need,” mentioned Musaeva of Ukrayinska Pravda, explaining that buyers are more and more turning to digital platforms for laborious information.

“Ukrainians are watching TV for collection and leisure exhibits,” he mentioned. “Information is being generated on social networks. That is our window into democracy.”

Violence, harassment

Musaeva additionally expressed issues about journalists being harassed, threatened and attacked with impunity.

“In 2020, journalists in Ukraine are underneath fireplace from each route—authorities, activists, bloggers, viewers,” he mentioned, including that the aggression is usually rooted within the assumption that journalists are considered as political opponents.

“There’s demand in Ukrainian society for journalists to take a place,” he mentioned. “It raises a important query: who’re journalists, what are the skilled requirements?

“This misunderstanding places journalists in manner of hurt or hazard,” he mentioned.

As an alternative of marshaling laws to guard reporters, mentioned union chief Tomilenko, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s cupboard ministers as a substitute targeted on drafting media regulations designed to combat misinformation, a transfer that drew worldwide criticism.

“After the brand new president got here to energy and the entire political panorama was rebooted, the efforts nonetheless have been targeted on strengthening media regulation and growing the draconian regulation proposed by ex-Minister of Tradition Volodymyr Borodiansky,” Tomilenko mentioned.

The specialists appeared to agree that strengthening and modernizing Ukraine’s public broadcasting system, an effort that has been underneath manner since 2013, is one strategy to preserve personal pursuits in verify.

“Till we make public broadcasting sturdy and restrict the oligarchs’ affect on the media market, I do not foresee any hints of enchancment,” mentioned Svitlana Ostapa, who chairs the supervisory board of Ukraine’s Nationwide Public Broadcasting Firm.

“No less than we do not disguise these information in the event that they occur,” she mentioned, evaluating the rigorous documentation of primary information to the facility of dependable coronavirus testing.

“Much less testing, much less knowledge,” she mentioned. “We all know there are international locations with authoritarian regimes, the place the conditions with journalists’ rights are undoubtedly worse than ours. Nevertheless, we’re speaking about it, and we’re recording it.”

RSF on Thursday referred to as on Ukrainian officers to enact legal guidelines to safeguard journalists from harassment and assaults. The assertion adopted reviews {that a} correspondent was assaulted by officers in Kyiv final week whereas filming an anti-lockdown protest.

They referred to as the incident one in every of “many different circumstances of threats and acts of aggression and intimidation” towards journalists amid the COVID-19 well being disaster.

Ruslan Deynychenko and Oksala Ligostova contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine. This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service.