Exclusion of Espreso TV channel from T2: Ukraine has been moving away from democracy and freedom of speech for a year now

At that time, journalists of the Espreso TV channel made an open appeal in the channel's studio. "This is only the second attempt in the history of Ukraine to turn off the Espreso TV channel. The first one was during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 on Yanukovych's orders. But they failed to do it then. The second one is today, during the active phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war and, obviously, on the instructions of the Kremlin forces, which is being implemented by the BRT Concern today. We have not received any answers to our attempts to get an explanation."

A year has passed, but during this time, neither the authorities in general nor any high-ranking official has taken responsibility for the disconnection of patriotic channels.

Attempts by journalists to find out who was to blame were met with a blank wall of ignorance and shifting responsibility to "someone else." Despite the absence of a culprit, it is obvious that the authorities are not acting to restore broadcasting.

The history of the shutdown

Some officials claimed that the reason for the channel's shutdown was the March 18 decision of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council to implement a unified information policy under martial law. The decision referred to the creation of an information marathon "by uniting all national TV channels.” However, neither the head of state, nor the National Security and Defense Council, nor the National Council explained how to ensure such an "information policy" and whether it was necessary to turn off any channels for this purpose.

"On March 21, immediately after the NSDC's decision, Espreso TV channel sent official letters to all authorized state bodies, including the President's Office, the NSDC, and the National Council, stating that 50% of its airtime was being broadcast by Espreso TV channel on its own initiative. The TV channel also asked for clarification on how the presidential decree and the NSDC decision should be implemented, as these documents do not contain such details. We did not receive any response, and on April 4 we saw that the TV channel was cut off, despite the fact that our license is valid," says Espreso’s press service of . According to them, the TV channel also did not receive any response to new letters asking for an explanation of the situation.

"Disconnecting the broadcast of our TV channels is illegal, as there is no valid document that would give the BRT Concern legal grounds to disconnect us from broadcasting," reads an open letter from the staff of three Ukrainian news channels, which they sent to the head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine in April.

Who pushed the button?

In May, at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, they tried to figure out who had switched off the Espreso channel and on whose instructions.

The National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting stated that it had nothing to do with the disconnection of TV channels, that it was not their function and they were only engaged in monitoring, and that T2 was not broadcasting only the United News telethon.

The Ministry of Culture stated that it also did not make any decisions to turn off the channels, as it is not their competence.

A representative of the State Service for Special Communications said that the disconnection was allegedly a "channel switch" and that the decision was made by the National Security and Defense Council. This was denied by a representative of the National Security and Defense Council, who said that the NSDC decision did not mention anything about disconnecting or switching channels.

"The decision of the National Security and Defense Council is publicly available and there is nothing about turning off the channels. When the National Security and Defense Council received an appeal from Espreso TV regarding the situation, we sent this request to the National Council, which is authorized to make appropriate decisions..." said Volodymyr Zvieriev, head of the Information Support Department of the National Security and Defense Council.

On August 15, the Business Ombudsman Council reported that there were no decisions to stop broadcasting Espreso, Priamyi and Channel 5.

"We learned many things that surprised me personally. In particular, that those who are supposed to do the marathon are not doing it. They were not involved and now they are deprived of the opportunity to broadcast on the T2 platform. And vice versa, those who are supposed to be doing the marathon according to the NSDC decision are doing it. In my opinion, the decision of the National Security and Defense Council and the presidential decree are not being properly implemented," said Mykyta Poturaiev, chairman of the committee and MP from the Servant of the People party, following the consideration of the issue. 

The vicious circle of irresponsibility could not be broken. No one was found guilty. However, the position of the authorities is obvious, as the TV channels have not yet been returned to the air. 

The Media Movement, the community of the Ukrainian journalists, and the Commission on Journalistic Ethics called on President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to intervene in the situation with the disconnection of news channels from the digital airwaves and explain the reasons for such actions by the BRT Concern. In addition, more than 150 representatives of Ukrainian scientific and cultural intellectuals and even members of the Polish Sejm and senators addressed President Zelenskyy in support of the TV channels.

In July, a petition to return Espreso, Channel 5, and Priamyi to the digital era was registered on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which received the 25,000 votes needed for consideration. On August 15, the government forwarded the issues raised in the petition to the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. Representatives of the Espreso channel expressed outrage at the government's decision. "We are outraged by the response of the Cabinet of Ministers to the petition to return the Espreso TV channel to the digital airwaves. It does not provide any explanation as to why the TV channel was disconnected.  And most importantly, the CMU's response does not say when the Espreso signal will be returned to T2." 

Meanwhile, the explanations given by government officials in response to direct questions about why the channels were cut off and when they will be returned to the air have increasingly begun to resemble a mockery of common sense. For example, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, said that the channels were turned off because they partially broadcast Poroshenko.

The response of Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko on October 5 was frankly Orwellian: he called the absence of Espreso, Channel 5 and Priamyi channels from the telethon "diversity in the TV space."

The attack on freedom of speech is the destruction of Ukraine's European prospects

As Ukraine seeks to join the EU under a fast-track procedure, the US State Department in its report notes the unsatisfactory state of affairs with freedom of speech. 

The EU pays great attention to the state of affairs with democracy and freedom of speech. Ukraine needs to show not by words but by deeds that it stands firmly on democratic principles, and even war cannot be an excuse for authoritarian manifestations, the report says. 

The European Union had a similar assessment, and, according to BBC News, it has privately expressed concern to official Kyiv about its media policy in Ukraine. 

"We have discussed more than once that we need to move to a more open space. And people should be given the opportunity to choose what they want to watch," the German ambassador to Ukraine said.

The New York Times pointed out that the joint marathon of Ukrainian TV channels, which did not include pro-Ukrainian opposition media, is one of the most controversial moves by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In January 2023, the International Federation of Journalists noted, "We are extremely concerned about the authoritarian drift of the Ukrainian government towards the media and journalists. There cannot be a democracy without independent journalism."

The Ukrainian government is committing acts that are characteristic of authoritarian regimes. Ukraine cannot defeat Russia if its authorities work with identical methods outside the law. It is noteworthy that the website of the Espreso TV channel was blocked by the Prosecutor General's Office of the terrorist aggressor country of Russia.  

On the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the TV channels' exclusion, the international organization Reporters Without Borders appealed to the Ukrainian authorities to guarantee the pluralism of information by resolving the problem as soon as possible. 

"It is incredible that Ukraine’s 16 million DVB viewers have been denied access to the three opposition TV channels in a legal confusion that has endured for a year," said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

"We fail to understand the lack of political will to solve this problem, and we urge the Ukrainian authorities to sort things out as quickly as possible," the reporters' statement reads. 

Will the authorities have the courage to correct their mistakes and not harm Ukraine's European integration? This question remains open for now.

Instead of conclusions

At a time when legal arbitrariness continues to be exercised against Espreso, the TV channel has not betrayed its viewers and remains an independent professional patriotic media outlet that works for the victory of Ukraine by all means available to it.

After the invasion, Espreso journalists were in the territories occupied by Russian troops, some of them were in hot spots, and even under fire continued to perform their professional work. Their videos and reports are proof of the crimes of the Russian army against the Ukrainian people. 

Espreso journalist and publicist Vitaliy Portnikov was awarded the Vasyl Stus Prize and the Shevchenko Prize, and Espreso correspondent Bianka Zalevska was awarded the Order of Princess Olha, second class, by President Zelenskyy's decree.

The Institute of Mass Information recognized Espreso.tv as one of the most professional and reliable websites in Ukraine.

Espreso's reporting on events in Ukraine over the past year was cited by dozens of international media outlets, including the New York Times, the Guardian, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and many others.