The sale of the NewsOne opposition television channel on Oct. 5 and the previous sale of the 112 Ukraine channel triggered accusations that pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk and President Petro Poroshenko had effectively taken over the channels through proxy owners.
The Presidential Administration denied the accusations. Medvedchuk has denied acquiring 112 Ukraine but his press office could not immediately comment on NewsOne’s purchase.
NewsOne’s owner Yevheny Murayev said on Oct. 5 that he had sold the channel to Opposition Bloc lawmaker Taras Kozak, a close associate of Medvedchuk.
Ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s exiled Deputy Chief of Staff Andriy Portnov, who acquired trustee rights to manage NewsOne in August, said he had relinquished his trustee rights because of the sale to Kozak.
Kozak is a deputy head of Pravova Derzhava (Rule of Law), an NGO headed by Medvedchuk.
He also leases a 609 square meter house from Sport-Tur, a company owned by Medvedchuk’s wife Oksana Marchenko.
Meanwhile, the brothers of Medvedchuk and brothers of Kozak are co-owners of firms called Eksponent, Kerambud, Ukrinvestlimited and Zakhidekspertspetsbud.
The sale of NewsOne was preceded by the Verkhovna Rada’s Oct. 4 decision to ask the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on NewsOne and 112 Ukraine for their pro-Russian coverage.
The sanctions may include stripping the channels of their broadcasting licenses, freezing their assets, suspending their intellectual property rights, terminating their permits to import or export foreign currency and other penalties.
Critics of the authorities argued that they had used pro-Russian coverage as an excuse to eliminate criticism of the government. NewsOne and 112 Ukraine have invited both pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian opposition politicians, with many of them effectively banned on other channels.
The sale was also preceded by Murayev’s decision in September to leave Za Zhyttia (For Life), a pro-Russian party headed by NewsOne’s previous owner Vadym Rabynovych. Murayev’s exit from the party triggered accusations that he had reached a political deal with Poroshenko, which Murayev denied.
Takeover by Poroshenko?
Poroshenko has been accused of blackmailing NewsOne and 112 Ukraine through the Verkhovna Rada and the National Security and Defense Council to bully them into submission and get control over their editorial policy ahead of the 2019 presidential elections. His administration denied it.
“Today it became finally clear why the Presidential Administration organized the show with accusing “undesirable” channels of an “unpatriotic” position,” the Batkivshchyna party of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Poroshenko’s main competitor in the election campaign, said in a statement on Oct. 5. “Now Opposition Bloc lawmaker Taras Kozak owns (NewsOne). However, there’s no doubt that Petro Poroshenko has become the real owner. Few are surprised with (Poroshenko’s) cooperation with the Opposition Bloc and Medvedchuk’s people.”
Oleksiy Bratushchak, a journalist at the Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper, claimed on the eve of NewsOne’s purchase that there would be changes “positive for Poroshenko” at the channel.
“Some very clever allies of the president have decided to get influence over the channel using patriotic sentiment,” he said.
Bratushchak also said that 112 Ukraine had boosted its positive coverage of Poroshenko recently.
“Medvedchuk and Poroshenko agree in their position on the issue,” lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem told NewsOne on Oct. 5. “The existence of these channels is advantageous for them. I’m sure this is collusion, and there will be no sanctions. It’s like in (ex-President Viktor) Yanukovych’s era, when television channels were threatened with sanctions to influence their owners, executives and editorial policy.”
Meanwhile, Dmytro Nosikov, a consultant for Poroshenko’s top ally and lawmaker Igor Kononenko, became the general producer of NewsOne in January 2017 before leaving in July 2017.
“Poroshenko has partnered up with Medvedchuk in the information policy of television channels and appointed his proteges to some channels,” Leshchenko said in September in a reference to Nosikov.
Takeover of 112 Ukraine
Until April, 112 Ukraine was formally owned by businessman Andriy Podshchipkov, but numerous market sources said it was actually owned by allies of Yanukovych, although this was denied by the channel.
An investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty revealed in August that the channel may have been de facto taken over by Medvedchuk, who denies acquiring it.
In April Eduard Katz, a little-known German businessman without any overt links to Ukraine, bought 112 Ukraine. After the acquisition, 112 Ukraine’s already mostly positive coverage of Medvedchuk increased dramatically.
Meanwhile, Artem Marchevsky became the general producer of the channel. In 2015 he ran on the list of the People’s Right, a party headed by an associate of Medvedchuk, in the election for Kyiv City Council.
Exiled lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who is wanted as a suspect in an embezzlement case in Ukraine, said in 2017 that Poroshenko had asked him to buy 112 Ukraine for him in secrecy, which was denied by Poroshenko.
In 2016, the Strana.ua news site published an alleged memorandum between Onyshchenko and 112 Ukraine’s then owner Podshchypkov, under which the channel would abstain from criticizing Poroshenko, which was confirmed by Podshchypkov. Meanwhile, Leshchenko published an alleged 2015 plan by the government to take over 112 Ukraine.
Since then, the channel has had problems with extending its license, while its coverage of Poroshenko has become less critical.
