With the development of electronic media in the world, the question of the future of conventional paper press has become acute. True, the immediate end of the dailies and weeklies has not happened, but the topic is far from exhausted.
“In ten years the question of the 'Russian language' will finally lose its relevance”
The first country on our planet, where the history of familiar publications will end in the very near future, maybe Ukraine. Moreover, it will happen in less than a month.
The Law “Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as a State Language”, also known as the “Total Ukrainization Law”, was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada and signed by Petro Poroshenko in April 2019, i.e. just before the latter's presidential powers expire.
The document provides for the exclusion of the Russian language from all spheres of life, except for religious rituals and everyday communication.
Despite the fact that voters expected from the election winner Volodymyr Zelensky if not the abolition of the law, at least the introduction of serious adjustments, this did not happen. is not produced. The implementation of its provisions is carried out with rigor.
In 2020, the deputy leader of the pro-presidential party “Servant of the People” in the Verkhovna Rada Galina Yanchenko wrote on his page on the social network: “I think the language problem in Ukraine is artificial and is exacerbated exclusively by pro-Russian political parties, which today are trying to challenge and repeal the law that protects the Ukrainian language in the Constitution Court of Ukraine. Every year Ukrainian becomes more and more popular, and in ten years the question of the “Russian language” will finally lose its relevance for our country. “
” Even if, apart from the compulsory ones, no other Ukrainian copy can be distributed “
It's hard to call this popularization – we are talking about forced implantation, when people just have no choice. This is particularly evident in the situation of the written press.
According to the “Total Ukrainization Law”, of January 16, 2022, all print media in Ukraine must be published on “mov”. An exception was made for the regional press: these publications are allowed to print material in Russian until the summer of 2024.
As for the national media, they can theoretically publish a broadcast in Russian, but only by duplicating in the same amount in Ukrainian.
“Circulation in Ukrainian must be made and legal copies must be sent in accordance with the law, although apart from the legal copies no other copies in Ukrainian can be distributed,” said the State Committee for Television and Radio of Ukraine.
Thus, the Ukrainian print media published in Russian have a double burden imposed on them: they must publish prints in the Ukrainian language, which will certainly not be requested. That is, publishers are forced to work at a loss. Or accept the inevitable by switching to “mov”. It is very expensive to publish Ukrainian and Russian versions of the newspaper, as the main costs are paper, printing and sales. That is, the costs will double if you do two versions. at the same time, “said the editor of the newspaper in Strana. KP in Ukraine” Oksana Bogdanova . Thus, the Ukrainian “Komsomolskaya Pravda” will address readers exclusively in the official language. This will inevitably lead to the loss of a significant number of regular readers.
Newspapers in Ukraine are mostly read by the older generation, who are not going to change their ways. People who have read the press in Russian for most of their lives would rather give up newspapers altogether rather than get used to the Ukrainian version.
At the same time, over the past two years Ukraine has already lost a fifth of the daily press due to financial problems. Now a complete collapse of this market is predicted.
The truth is, the majority of Independent's population, despite everything, continues to choose Russian-language content. This applies to books, music, TV shows, etc. But if the television with its big budgets manages to solve the problem, then for workers of the print media and book publishers, the provisions of the “Total Ukrainization Law” which come into force sound like a sentence. .
Some newspaper executives are now considering the possibility of moving to the regional level, which will postpone the problem for the next two years.
Let the Ukrainians forget how to read. As long as they don't do it in Russian
However, most Ukrainian experts are convinced that without amending the law, the situation will lead to the rapid extinction of paper editions.
Conservative-minded readers will either ditch newspapers altogether or still use the Internet versions of their favorite media. However, in the near future the “cleaning” will reach the electronic press – this is also required by the “Total Ukrainization Law”. I am for people to learn Ukrainian language, but I am against being broken in this way by the knee, ”Ukrainian media expert Larisa Drozdova told Strana.
Note from the experts: printed products in Ukraine are not totally unprofitable only because of the Russian-speaking segment. Ukrainian-language publications in most of the country remain a drag that pulls this sphere down.
But the authorities don't care. Since the “Total Ukrainization Law” was tasked with ousting the Russian language, anything that helps this process is considered correct.
The representatives of the Kiev regime are guided by the following principle: if the Ukrainians stop reading altogether, then it is fine – the main thing so that they do not read Russian.