Fast Facts Language: Ukrainian Established: 1954 Distribution: Radio (FM, UKW, cable, satellite), Internet Coverage: 2.5 hours/day, one hour weekend news talk show on regional affiliates Locations: Prague, Kyiv Staff: 10 (Prague), 22 (Kyiv), and dozens of stringers

Media Environment

• Freedom House Freedom of the Press Index, 2012: Partly Free (130/197)
• Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, 2012: 116th/179
• The primary obstacle to media freedom in Ukraine is not government interference per se, but the oligarchical nature of the media market. Despite private ownership and the relative freedom that exists in the Ukrainian media environment, the quality and independence of the country’s media as a whole is still limited.
• Local governments often control local media outlets, and journalists who investigate wrongdoing at the local level still face physical intimidation.

Highlights

• The Service has established a special website that monitors the trial of former governmental officials in Ukraine, currently paying the most attention to the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko.
• Radio Svoboda’s January 2012 video interview with Oleksandr Tymoshenko, the husband of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was widely quoted in Ukrainian media, including the popular 1+1 television channel.
• In April 2011, the Service produced a special video report “25 Years in the Exclusion Zone” that took an in-depth look at the Chernobyl area and at the lives of the villagers directly impacted by the nuclear disaster.
• A video report by Iryna Tuz entitled “Welcome to Chernobyl” was a finalist for the “Best TV Creative Feature” at the Association for International Broadcasting Awards in November 2010.
• Radio Svoboda’s award-winning investigative report in March 2010, that uncovered a scheme to cut down trees in nature reserves then sell the wood for export, led to the firing of the chairman of Ukraine’s State Committee for Forestry, Mykola Tymoshenko.

updated: 9 April 2012

Population
46.3 million (2008 World Bank estimate)

Most Common Languages:
Ukrainian, Russian, Crimean Tartar, Yiddish

Press Freedom Index (Freedom House):
Partly Free, ranked 130 out of 197(2012)

Press Freedom Index (RSF):
116 out of 175 (2012)

Corruption Index (Transparency Int.):
152 out of 183 (2011)

Global Peace Index (IES):
71 out of 158 (2012)

Human Rights Watch:
Report on Ukraine (2012)

Amnesty International:
Ukraine Report (2012)