This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l.
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The Kyiv Post and the fight for independent media
By: []
Date: 2021-12
In Ukraine, oligarchs use media as tools for influence, a long-time tradition that has thrived for decades.
Their purposes vary, but not much. At times, it’s to advocate for policies favourable to them. The Ukraina television channel, owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, has previously promoted a controversial energy tariff that was profitable for his company. The pricing scheme is now at the centre of a criminal case brought by anti-corruption investigators.
Sometimes, it’s to protect their businesses: take oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, whose 1+1 TV channel defended his influence on Ukrnafta, an oil and natural gas company co-owned by him and the Ukrainian state.
Often, owners use the media to “pass a message” to Ukrainian officials. Both Kolomoisky and Akhmetov have turned to this tool when negotiating with the country’s presidents.
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Ukrainian oligarchs tend to believe that by buying media, they gain power, and to some extent they are right.
The independent Kyiv Post
One might think that by buying the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s leading English-language newspaper, businessman Adnan Kivan had counted on using it for influence.
The Syrian-born Odesa real estate developer already had a media outlet in the southern Ukrainian city where he lives, where he clearly influenced editorial policy. But it was local. He wanted more, including, as the now former staff were to discover later, a national TV channel.
In 2018, he purchased the Kyiv Post newspaper – and promised to keep its editorial independence intact. However, three years later, this promise would be broken.
In mid-October of 2021, the manager of Kivan’s Odesa media announced, via Facebook, the launch of a Ukrainian-language outlet under the brand of the Kyiv Post. She said it would be run by a separate editorial team and announced that she had already started hiring.
Neither the Kyiv Post’s current team, nor its then editor-in-chief Brian Bonner were aware of these plans for expansion.
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