Ukraine/New Media Landscape

Eurasia Daily Monitor: Ukrainian parties scramble for media

"When the Ukrainian parliament reconvenes in early September, the March 2006 parliamentary election campaign will officially begin. Over the summer Ukrainian political parties have been energetically seeking media resources (especially television) and foreign support."

"Since Viktor Yushchenko became president, several television channels have changed hands. The big losers have been the three oligarchic clans who were the bedrock of support for ex-president Leonid Kuchma's regime and their related political parties. The Social Democratic Party-United (SDPUo) had directly controlled directly State Television Channel One, Inter, and, indirectly, 1+1. The last two channels are the largest in Ukraine."

"Channel 1 is now under Yushchenko's control. Inter's president died in June and the new CEO is likely to be Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy (Ukrayinska pravda, June 30). Khoroshkovskiy is a protégé of oligarch Viktor Pinchuk (Kuchma's son-in-law) who financed the Winter Crop Generation party that Khoroshkovskiy jointly led in the 2002 election. Under Khoroshkovskiy Inter TV will be far less confrontational toward Yushchenko than it was in the Kuchma era, when it became the main anti-Yushchenko television channel."