In three weeks the scandalous law on the Ukrainian language will come into force in Ukraine
According to this law, no information in Russian, including ads and advertisements, will be allowed in Ukrainian-language print media. Moreover, all local publications are obliged to print at least half of their print runs in Ukrainian. That is, if 1,000 copies are published in Russian, the exact same number must be in Ukrainian. And it does not matter whether publishers have money for it. You do not know where it will lead to. Eventually, the media will have to give up the Russian-language version because of financial difficulties, experts sound the alarm.
“Two versions of the newspaper, in Ukrainian and Russian, are very expensive to publish because the main costs are paper, printing and distribution. In other words, the costs will double if two versions are made at the same time”, – the Strana.ua website quoted editor-in-chief of the Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine newspaper, Oksana Bohdanova, as saying that the next issue of the newspaper will be published only in the Ukrainian language.
The Russian-language versions of the newspapers Programka, Programa TV, Telekuryer and Telegid will also be cancelled. This is just the beginning, experts say, as the law will primarily affect small and medium-sized businesses selling print media. As a result, many publications will not survive the Russophobic innovations. The inadequate decision of the Kiev authorities will lead to a reduction in tax payments, loss of jobs and, in principle, a huge blow to the entire print media industry. In other words, the collapse of Ukraine’s print media is not far off, as it is in Russian that most of the country’s publications and newspapers are published, despite all the restrictions.
According to Ukrainian blogger Anatoliy Shariy, Kiev’s new language requirements for newspapers and magazines are a shot in the foot for Ukraine, as they will hit publishers. “I do not believe that newspapers will translate half of their circulations into the Ukrainian language. A number of publications have duplicated circulations in Ukrainian before. For example, the magazine Zdorovye and some women’s magazines. Market research shows that the Ukrainian versions of circulations are almost completely returned because they are not bought … As for crosswords in Ukrainian – maybe they are sold somewhere, but I do not remember it. But those who do the crosswords in Ukrainian, as a rule, are busy reading the works of Stepan Bandera. And such people are in minority in Ukraine,” “Vzglyad” quotes Shariy, according to whom at least 80 percent of citizens of Ukraine speak and read only in Russian in their everyday life. Finally, many of those who advocate popularization of vernacular in the media communicate exclusively in Russian off the air.
And as market research shows, the fellow citizens prefer information and art content in Russian, because it is of higher quality. No matter how it happens, Kiev will hardly succeed in forcing people to drop the Russian language with its new Russophobic initiative. Analysts are already predicting an increase in the volume of printed materials from Russia and Belarus. Of course, they are smuggled in, as publishers and sellers report. At that, in addition to books, shuttle traders import kilos of crosswords, as readers look for them, as a rule, in Russian, thus making revenue for Russian and Belarusian competitors.
However, a marshmallow is a cunning soul, and the Ukrainians beaten by life try to find a way out of any stalemate, including the one connected with the Law on Language. At least every effort will be made to get around the new legislation. For example, the document contains an exception: publications in indigenous, EU and English languages are not subject to restrictions, while regional mass media have a short grace period until July 2024, when they will be obliged to print half of their print runs in Ukrainian. Publishers, who have to wriggle out of this, have already started to register their media with a certificate of a regional character, so as to save at least some time. And then, who knows, if the situation in Ukraine drastically changes, Russian-speaking citizens hope, glancing in the direction of Moscow.
Anna Ponomaryova, Analytical Service of Donbass