Self-censorships in Ukraine: distinguishing between the silences of television journalism

Fedirko, T. (2020) Self-censorships in Ukraine: distinguishing between the silences of television journalism. European Journal of Communication, 35(1), pp. 12-28. (doi: 10.1177/0267323119897424)

Abstract

This article builds on biographical interviews with public service broadcasting journalists, who have earlier worked for mainstream private media in Kyiv, Ukraine, to argue that journalists, according to their own understandings, engage in several different forms of self-censorship that do not necessarily have a direct relationship to external censorship. I identify and analyse three different forms of self-censorship – pragmatic, ethical and affective – that are simultaneously present in the same professional community of Ukrainian television journalists at a single historical moment, despite the fact that they operate in accordance with distinct logics. Taken together, they offer an empirical basis to challenge scholarly accounts that understand self-censorship as a singular phenomenon. The article proposes some initial analytical parameters and questions for a more nuanced analysis of the empirical heterogeneity of self-censorship.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The research project on which this article is based received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 683033).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Fedirko, Dr Taras
• Authors: Fedirko, T.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Central and East European Studies
• Journal Name: European Journal of Communication
• Publisher: SAGE
• ISSN: 0267-3231
• ISSN (Online): 1460-3705
• Published Online: 06 January 2020