High digital participation despite media companies struggling with innovation

The #speakup barometer has examined the connection between digital participation, freedom of expression and access to information in Ukraine. This assessment has not taken the situation on the Crimean peninsula (annexed by Russia in 2014) and in the self-proclaimed people’s republics in the Donbass region supported by Russia into account. Ukrainian legislation currently does not extend to both regions. As a result, the state of digital rights has deteriorated tremendously.

In Ukraine’s highly politicized society, many are active on social media, using platforms like Facebook and Instagram to debate politics. Since the Maidan protests in 2014 however, Russia has tried to poison the discourse through disinformation and hate speech. Stopfake, a debunking initiative by Ukrainian journalists and academics, has enumerated 18 different narratives that Russian state media disseminate against Ukraine. In a time when the country is trying to reach a consensus on its future, fake news poses a huge challenge to Ukrainian society. In response, civil society has intensified its efforts to raise the media and information literacy (MIL) of their compatriots.

Informational warfare with Russia dominates the Ukrainian debate on digital rights. In 2017, then Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko issued a decree blocking access to major Russian Internet services. The ban, although not comprehensively enforced, received support as well as criticism. Proponents see it as a legitimate means of defense against Russian propaganda, while critics consider it to be an infringement on freedom of speech which could easily be extended to voices from within Ukraine.

Russian informational attacks trigger debate on regulation

Subway station in Kiev

The Ukrainian constitution guarantees freedom of speech, as does existing media legislation. According to experts, the general framework on freedom of expression is basically compliant with international standards, but implementation lags somewhat behind. However, digital rights are under pressure. In 2018, civil society stopped a bill granting security force what many activists considered a free hand in taking down websites that incited violence and hate speech.  Some fear that Ukrainians’ digital rights could be curtailed under the pretext of fighting back against Russian trolls, bots, and state media.

The concept of digital rights remains fairly unknown in Ukraine. Some civil society groups are therefore working on forming a larger coalition to advocate on the issue.

Ukraine among countries with lowest Internet costs

The Ukrainian Internet is fairly unregulated. Some 1,500 Internet service providers are active throughout the country, though many provide access only in one particular town or region. The high number of competitors has driven down costs – to some of the lowest in the world. Mobile Internet, though, has had a late start as 4G was only made available in 2018. As a result, up-to-date numbers of Internet penetration are hard to find, with studies pegging the percentage of Ukrainians online at 64 to 93 percent.

Most quality journalism is digital – but it’s far from enough

Summer media camp for citizen journalists

Today most quality media outlets are online. For independent media outlets, going digital has long provided an opportunity with low barriers to entry, while mainstream media continued to be dominated by the country’s influential oligarchs. Some of these new media houses surfaced during the authoritarian rule of former president Victor Yanukovich; others appeared during the Maidan protests. However, a big gap remains between high-quality media, mostly situated in the capital Kyiv, and regional media companies that still struggle to find sustainable business models in a digital environment.

Ukrainian IT-sector is world-class, but innovation fails to reach media

While the strong Ukrainian IT-sector is oriented towards the export market, many media outlets find it difficult to assess which kind of innovation to invest in for long-term success. As budgets are small, open source software plays an important role in media innovation. However, most programs are developed internationally, as Ukraine lacks a community of open source coders working for the media industry. As a result, new media projects outside of civil society are one of the main drivers of innovation in the media sector.

The #speakup barometer is a DW Akademie project that examines the connection between digital participation, freedom of expression and access to information. Learn more at www.dw.com/barometer