There are few elements in this text which makes me wonder what was the goal:
- e.g. topic of opposition in context of power grab, you literally use word 'media' once, and then make no mention that all non-Internet media is grabbed and opposition is kicked out from e.g. TV distribution.
- and there are other topics e.g. as implied lethargy in Ukrainian society towards Crimea, as if Crimea were 'neglected', but there is no mention of actual lethargy in society in general and constitutional status of Crimea which made it autonomy in full sense, so they were free to live as they want.
- self-reflection and discussion about Crimea happened in 2014-2015, frozen on infamous теперь хоть камни с неба. Тhere was not much point to beat about the bush in 2016-2017 - folks already had an opinion, and the question was more focused on eastern regions of Ukraine.
Thanks for the comment Andriy, you're right that the media monopolization around the marathon is a major problem as well, I didn't mention it because I was mostly reacting to the Economist story, and that story basically only mentions media with the example of Ukrainska Pravda having its access restricted. And that example is also something I don't think is particularly new... while the concentration of media coverage under the marathon and exclusion of opposition media very much is something new, that's true.
Regarding Crimea, as I said it's a topic you could write several books about, I am not pretending my thoughts on this are exhaustive.
Thank you for your insightful comments on my piece.
There are few elements in this text which makes me wonder what was the goal:
- e.g. topic of opposition in context of power grab, you literally use word 'media' once, and then make no mention that all non-Internet media is grabbed and opposition is kicked out from e.g. TV distribution.
- and there are other topics e.g. as implied lethargy in Ukrainian society towards Crimea, as if Crimea were 'neglected', but there is no mention of actual lethargy in society in general and constitutional status of Crimea which made it autonomy in full sense, so they were free to live as they want.
- self-reflection and discussion about Crimea happened in 2014-2015, frozen on infamous теперь хоть камни с неба. Тhere was not much point to beat about the bush in 2016-2017 - folks already had an opinion, and the question was more focused on eastern regions of Ukraine.
At that point I lost interest.
Thanks for the comment Andriy, you're right that the media monopolization around the marathon is a major problem as well, I didn't mention it because I was mostly reacting to the Economist story, and that story basically only mentions media with the example of Ukrainska Pravda having its access restricted. And that example is also something I don't think is particularly new... while the concentration of media coverage under the marathon and exclusion of opposition media very much is something new, that's true.
Regarding Crimea, as I said it's a topic you could write several books about, I am not pretending my thoughts on this are exhaustive.