“Double standards and incompetence”: Milovanov makes claims to Ukrayinska Pravda
10 October 2024 22:10
The incident with Ukrayinska Pravda, whose journalists complained about pressure from the Office of the President of Ukraine, continued. A post with a complaint against the editorial board was published on his Facebook page by Tymofiy Mylovanov, a freelance adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, reports "Komersant Ukrainian".
“They took my comment about Sviridenko offline. We even have a recording of the conversation where the journalist himself says “let’s go offrec”. And then an article was published with my quotes and my name. It was a bit distorted, without context, but that’s secondary. When I asked the journalist why I was quoted, even though they insisted they would not quote me, they said: they forgot, they made a mistake, they’re sorry, but it’s in the public interest,” Milovanov wrote.
He added that this situation led him to the conclusion that Ukrayinska Pravda journalists cannot be trusted when giving a comment.
Journalist and editorial staff member Roman Romaniuk wrote in the comments to Milovanov’s post.
“It was me. I put it (the quote – ed.) authorised, because we did not understand each other … in that shaft of comments and quotes for the text. And then they published the text and it was very funny to change my name to the source. Тим паче, що цитата була ну дууууже безобідна, чому, власне, я і не подумав, що таке має бути без посилання”, – написав Романюк.
Tymofiy Mylovanov responded to this with the following:
“In a civilised society, you would have been in court and paid a fine. It’s ‘funny for you to delete’, but for some reason you don’t find it funny to look like people who can’t establish a process of ‘commenting’, respect for the audience, and just be ethical. You find it funny to be ethical. So what do you want to get in return? Some respect? Some support? That’s why people refuse to talk to you, not because of any pressure. No one has ever pressured me not to communicate with you, but after this experience, I will not communicate with you.”
In the end, Milovanov even devoted a separate post to the editorial staff member’s comment a separate post. In it, the freelance adviser to the head of the OP named the points that did not satisfy him in the work of the UP media outlet.
In particular, Milovanov complained about the following:
- “They (journalists – ed.) cannot and are not going to do what they promise when they take a comment. They can distort it. They can put it onrek when they promised offrek.
- They do not agree to correct mistakes.
- They are dismissive of respondents.
- They do not have a professional production process.
“All of this together – arrogance, double standards, incompetence, and an unreasonable belief in their rightness always, everywhere, on any topic (‘we are on the white side, and you are on the dark side’ – a quote from a conversation with (another) journalist) pushes people away,” Milovanov concluded.
On 8 October “Ukrayinska Pravda reported pressure from the Presidential Office.
“We would like to draw the attention of colleagues, partners and international organisations to the long-term and systematic pressure exerted by the Presidential Office on the editorial board and individual journalists of Ukrayinska Pravda,” the media outlet said in a statement.
The publication believes that the Presidential Office is involved in such actions against the editorial office:
- blocking speakers from the government from communicating with Ukrayinska Pravda journalists and participating in events;
- pressure on businesses to stop advertising cooperation with UP;
- openly emotional communication between President Zelensky and UP journalist Roman Kravets, which we all witnessed live (we are talking about the press conference of the President of Ukraine on 27 August – ed.)
The editorial board stressed that every attempt by specific officials from the Presidential Office to influence the publication’s journalists would be publicly covered and would have consequences at the international level.
