Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
"1+1", "Era", "112 Ukraina", NewsOne: are Poroshenko's people buying them?
At the beginning of last week a source for Detector Media, close to Dmitry Firtash’s financial-industrial group, reported that Ihor Kolomoyskyi allegedly is selling $250 million on installment to people from Petro Poroshenko’s circle for 50% of the channel “1+1” (the channel only – not the group) in exchange for terms acceptable to him on the nationalization of PrivatBank. Several other sources, speaking with DM, noted that PrivatBank has debts on repayment of stabilization loans. And that allegedly the PrivatBank problem is one of the main reasons for the lack of progress in Ukraine’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on the next tranche.
The source also said that allegedly 100% of the channel Era and 50% each of the channels “112 Ukraina” and NewsOne are also passing under the control of Petro Poroshenko’s circle. In particular, at NewsOne, it is said, a BPP deputy Ihor Kononenko came in. By the way, Mr. Kononenko was the first guest on Yevhen Kyselyov’s program “The Big Interview” on NewsOne. And Ihor Nasalyk, the minister of energy and coal industry, who is linked to Ihor Kononenko, is now a fairly frequent guest on the channel. Another source, also close to the Inter group, claims that “112 Ukraina” supposedly also passed under Mr. Kononenko’s control. It is worth recalling that back in July the channel “112 Ukraina” changed its ownership structure, looping it through eight legal entities. Businessman Andriy Podshchypkov is no longer the official ultimate beneficial owner of the channel nor its director. Instead, information about the new ultimate beneficiary is absent in the single state register.
According to the Firtash group source, the terms of the deals allegedly include the appointment by the new owners or co-owners of “their” editors and the financial block, but top management remains in their positions. Also one of the conditions was the removal of Oleh Lyashko from the air of the channels obtained under control. Incidentally, in July Mr. Lyashko’s program left the air of NewsOne – the leader of the Radical Party linked this to “political pressure” on the channel. Also in July from “112 Ukraina” to NewsOne moved MP and TV host Serhiy Kaplin (since autumn 2015 he has been deputy head of the Party of Simple People of Serhiy Kaplin is Andriy Podshchypkov). Former host of the political talk show “Black Mirror” (Inter channel) Yevhen Kyselyov also ended up on NewsOne, although he initially announced a move to “112 Ukraina”.
28 August on the air of the channel “112 Ukraina” the host of the program “People. Hard Talk. Live” Nataliya Vlaschenko in an interview with the head of the parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy Viktoriya Syumar for the first time publicly voiced a rumor about the sale of “1+1”. However, in her version the sale was in exchange for NOT the nationalization of the bank: “I have an insight like this, I don’t know whether you will confirm it or deny it. Have you heard anything about this? I heard it today, and people close to the Dnipropetrovsk group confirmed it off the record. Is it true that Mr. Kolomoyskyi is selling 50% of the shares of ‘1+1’ to structures close to the President, allegedly in exchange for a guarantee of non-nationalization of Privat, and even, allegedly, on installment?”
Viktoriya Syumar, a deputy of the Narodnyi Front faction, did not say whether she had heard about this, but answered: “I am not invited to such negotiations – they are conducted behind closed doors. I think we will all see this in information policy. In this context I am much more concerned today about Russia’s influence on Ukrainian TV channels… I would not exclude anything in this story. Although for Kolomoyskyi ‘1+1’ is a basic resource. And it has already happened that for Ukrainian oligarchs having a TV channel is the best protection of their business. So this is an important point. But Russian influences on Ukrainian television worry me much more.” The Narodnyi Front deputy then moved to discussing the influence on Inter’s editorial policy of Russian citizen and political technologist Ihor Shuvalov.
Detector Media collected opinions from several other sources who may be familiar with the situation. Our interlocutor from the group “1+1 media” denied the information about the sale of half of “1+1” to the President’s circle. In his view, the source of this information is the Narodnyi Front. This information was also not confirmed at PrivatBank. In addition, on 26 August the bank’s general shareholders’ meeting took place, where a decision was made to increase its charter capital by more than 2,5 billion UAH by directing part of the profits of 2015 year and part of undistributed profits from previous years.
Meanwhile on Facebook they discuss a possible union of Narodnyi Front and the presidential political force. Host of “1+1” Oleksandr Dubynskyi sees the appointment of Kharkiv native Ihor Rainin as head of the Presidential Administration as the final stage of a project to unite Narodnyi Front (one of whose leaders is Interior Minister and Kharkiv native Arsen Avakov) and the presidential party Solidarity, which together with votes of the Vidrodzhennya faction would allow them to form a coalition without Batkivshchyna and Samopomich. Admittedly, the host of “1+1” delicately does not mention Arsen Avakov’s (and Ihor Rainin’s) political friendship with Ihor Kolomoyskyi – but readers of his blog hint at it.
But let’s return to media assets. We tried to obtain comments from the managers of the channels whose possible sale is being discussed on the market. It was not possible to reach the CEO of “1+1 media” Oleksandr Tkachenko and the general producer of “112 Ukraina” Serhiy Lohunov. The CEO of the channel Era Ihor Lotashevskyi said the following: “As the channel’s manager I would know about a sale. At present the channel is operating as before, and its owners have not changed.” NewsOne’s general producer Oleksiy Semenov refused to comment on the grounds that he is not responsible for finances.
The official owner of NewsOne, Yevhen Murayev, said that he did not conduct negotiations about selling NewsOne, that he had heard such rumors, but that they are not true:
- Yevhen, several sources claim that 50% of NewsOne and “112Ukraina” were sold to people close to the president’s circle. Could you confirm or deny this information?
- First, I am not a joint-stock company, I own 100% of LLC “Novyny – 24 Hour”, and second, I did not conduct such negotiations. The authorities always have a desire to consolidate media, that’s understandable, but unfortunately they act not financially but by force. That the channel is under pressure – that’s true, that the National Council has not renewed the license for three months and does not consider this issue – that’s also true. I have heard such rumors of a sale before. But it’s not true.
The same applies to the channel “112” – the channel is under pressure from the authorities. But that is only because we give everyone the opportunity to express opinions, and often they contradict the pro-government positioning.
- Have you received offers to buy the channel?
- Many times, from various political forces. And I have no plans to sell it for now. But don’t harbor illusions about the authorities: I would not be surprised if simultaneously both for me and for “112” some kind of mask-show begins. That seems more like the truth than agreements about a sale.
A Detector Media interlocutor from the Presidential Administration off the record neither confirmed nor denied the information about the possible transfer of several channels under Petro Poroshenko’s circle’s control.
At the same time our source in law enforcement noted that these rumors have been circulating for two months, but there is no confirmation. And at the moment everything looks rather ridiculous. At the same time, according to him, for two years there have been “observers” on channels monitoring content. So, he says, making conclusions about a change of owners from the information policy of the channels is inappropriate.
However, one can still see how the information policy of certain channels becomes increasingly more loyal to pro-government initiatives and politicians. In particular, a recent monitoring of news channels carried out by the NGO Detector Media showed that on the air of NewsOne and “112 Ukraina you can currently hear politicians from various political forces. 19 July on NewsOne those were VO “Svoboda” (Oleh Tyahnybok), “Opposition Bloc” (Oleksandr Vilkul), Batkivshchyna (Oleksiy Ryabchin), Petro Poroshenko Bloc (Nataliya Novak, Viktor Kryvenko), Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko (Ihor Moseichuk), Samopomich (Semen Semenchenko). Also two government officials were invited to the studio — Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Ihor Nasalyk and Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Maksym Nefyodov — and the head of the State Property Fund Ihor Bilous. In addition, the channel broadcast live a press conference with Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman.
Viewers of the channel “112 Ukraina” had the opportunity to hear and see representatives of the “Opposition Bloc” (Yevhen Balytskyi), Batkivshchyna (Serhiy Sobolev, Serhiy Yevtushok, Ihor Huz, Oleksiy Ryabchin), Narodnyi Front (Anton Herashchenko, Ihor Lapin, Vadym Denysenko, Andriy Pomazanov), Petro Poroshenko Bloc (Kostiantyn Usov, Oleh Barna, Oleh Petrenko, Volodymyr Melnychenko), Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko (Dmytro Lynko), Samopomich (Semen Semenchenko), from the Volia Narodu group (Volodymyr Lytvyn), independents (Volodymyr Parasiuk, Oleh Osukhovskyi). Regional administration heads Mikheil Saakashvili and Pavlo Zhebrivskyi also gave up-to-date comments on air. In other words, arithmetically a clear advantage on air was held by representatives of factions and political forces that support the current authorities. Also Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman was included in the air of the “112” channel.
At the same time the group “1+1 media” recently publicly protested an alleged attempt by the authorities to influence its content: the outlet “Telekritika”, controlled by “1+1 media”, published an article before Independence Day titled “How Stets and Vyatrovych taught TV channels to celebrate Independence Day”. The reason for the outrage was a letter with a proposal to “cover the stages of the creation of the state of Ukraine”, which on 8 August the Ministry of Information Policy sent to the largest TV channels. However, we have not yet heard channel outrage about “observers” or approval of speakers with Presidential Administration representatives or PR people of certain politicians, except about a year ago from the channel “112 Ukraina” about alleged general pressure.
The conclusion for now is one: there is no confirmation of channel sales and purchases. But certain moves, apparently, are happening. It is not a fact that in all cases they involve a change of owners. More likely, it may be about obtaining or strengthening control over channels’ editorial policies or coordinating positions between owners and the President’s team.
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Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "«1+1», «Ера», «112 Україна», NewsOne: чи купують їх люди Порошенка?". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.