The Littlest Hobo, Anne of Green Gables, maybe even Flashpoint could find a new lease on life in Ukraine as the country’s broadcasting council scrambles to fill TV screens with something other than Russian programming, says a senior Ukrainian official.
Iurii Artemenko
The country needs both hardware to improve its own radio and television signals and replacement programming.
“We try to find something,” Artemenko said in an interview with Canadian Press. He recently returned from a trip to South Korea, where he was pleading for content.
“We need high-quality content, shows, dramas, movies, cultural programs,” he said at the same time as expressing his fondness for Quebec cinema.
Artemenko says Canadian programs – dramas and comedies – would welcome and an important uplift for an anxious population.
In terms of equipment, Ukraine “doesn’t need money, but tuners and transmitters” to increase coverage in border regions.
The Russians, he said, use television very effectively to incite unrest in the East, claiming that actors are interviewed for news programs and fabricate stories of Ukrainian atrocities.
Information is still freely available on the internet, Artemenko says there’s been no attempt to block or censor online feeds – something the former journalist says he would oppose.
“I am journalist, my first profession, and I respect journalism, but I can give you lots of examples of Russian propaganda,” he said.
TV is the main weapon in the information war here and its influence is most profoundly felt among adults and the elderly, rather than young people.
Among the first targets of Russian special forces in the takeover of Crimea were the television stations and broadcast outlets, which have now blocked all forms of Ukrainian programming.
Youth get their information online, but Artemenko says despite having a variety of sources they sometimes are not very savvy about cross-referencing information and sorting fact from fiction.
