Print media in Ukraine are experiencing financial difficulties and will have to give up the Russian-language version because of new language regulations on the need to print at least half of their circulation in the Ukrainian language. The law will take effect on 16 January 2022, Strana reported
“The sale of print media is a niche for small and medium-sized businesses. Therefore, with the transition of print media to the Ukrainian language, business will suffer. And in the future it will lead to lower tax payments and loss of jobs, but we have a political solution that is above the interests of the entire print media industry”, – said media expert Sergei Cherniavskyi.
In his opinion, many print media will not survive the innovations at all or will be forced to give up the Russian-language version. This idea is confirmed by the editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine, which is still published in Russian, Oksana Bogdanova.
“We will act within the current legislation. But publishing two versions of the newspaper, in Ukrainian and Russian, is very expensive, because the main costs are paper, printing and distribution. So expenses will increase twice if we make two versions at once”, – Bogdanova said.
According to Roman Greba, the General Director of the Mega-press Group Publishing House, since the first January, the Programka, the TV Program, the Telecurier and the Telegid will also be published in Ukrainian.
Some publications are trying to circumvent the new requirements and there is a loophole in the law for this purpose. According to the State Language Law, an exception is made only for regional media that will be obliged to switch to Ukrainian only in July 2024. Publications in indigenous languages, official languages of the European Union and English are also exempt from these restrictions. The deputy director of the Soyuzpechat agency, Oleksiy Babanskyy, said that some publishers were already trying to circumvent the law and re-register media outlets under a regional certificate in order to remove the issue of switching to Ukrainian until 2024.
Many experts also predict that the transition of newspapers to the Ukrainian version may lead to an increase in the volume of printed products from Russia, in particular crosswords, on the country’s shelves.
“Crossword writers are people who solve crossword puzzles in the language they think in. If you suddenly translate all crossword puzzles into Ukrainian, it is equivalent to giving such a reader a crossword puzzle in French. The reader will not perceive it, as he does not think in Ukrainian. Such a reader will either refuse to buy the crosswords or look for smuggled editions from Belarus or Russia on the market, and such could well turn up”, – says Roman Greba, General Director of Mega-press Group.
Book publisher Alyona Lazutkina is also confident that demand for printed products from Russia will increase.
“Smuggling is now flourishing in the country. They bring it by kilos, so they do not care what is in the sack: whatever there is demand for, that’s what they bring. Previously they only brought books by the kilos, but now they also bring crosswords by the kilos”, – she told Strana.
Recall, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law on the Ukrainian language on 25 April 2019. According to the law, all cultural events must be held only in the state language. TV channels have been set a quota of 90% for programmes in the Ukrainian language. So far, advertising, services, health care and science have been fully translated into the state language. As of July 16, regulations regarding the Ukrainian cinema industry, holding events in the Ukrainian language and introducing exams for civil servants to assess their knowledge of the state language came into force in Ukraine.