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| The motivation of Zurab Alasania's dismissal. Source: https://www.facebook.com/chesno.movement/photos/a.281241881915527/2214952418544454/?type=3&theater |
Many people were astonished to see Zurab Alasania appointed to the post of the national television chief. In spring 2014, he was living in the Crimea and called to accept Russian occupational authorities. Nonetheless, he apparently appeared to become a true Ukrainian patriot since then.
State-owned UA: Pershyi TV-channel was stagnating. The Government used it for its promotion, while TV-channel's limited budget prevented it from production of quality TV shows to attract audience. As a result, the TV-channel was annually losing its viewers.
Among official reasons for Zurab Alasania's dismissal the lack of coverage of the governmental events and "detachment from the government". The latter is particularly amusing as the evening news were mostly praising the government's success.
Everybody understands the true reason for Zurab Alasania's dismissal: he was supporting journalist investigations that unmasked multiple cases of corruption by the high-rank officials and even the President. No secret, that a lot of pressure was put to cancel "The Schemes". However, most watched its episodes on YouTube leaving UA: Suspilne with low audience rates. To make things worse, the Government cut TV-channel's funding leaving it severely underfinanced.
All in all, Zurab Alasania's case is controversial. But the actions of the Government once again prove that it is afraid of the civil society and it will do anything to protect its corruption.
