For
Ukrainian pensioner Olga Shazhkova, channel-surfing in the front line town of
Avdiyivka is a monotonous business.
With
the face of Vladimir Putin looming large on her TV screen, she flicks over to
the next station with a sigh, only to land on the Russian army's official
channel.
Ukrainian
government forces control the ground in Avdiyivka, but pro-Moscow rebels just
across the front line of a two-year separatist conflict dominate the airways,
along with stations beamed in from Russia to the east.
The
result is that people on the Kiev-controlled side can end up flooded - whether
they like it or not - by news telling Russia's side of the story, through TV
channels that demonize the Ukrainian government and its cause.
"Before
the war started, we had all the channels," Shazhkova said in her living
room, which she is scared to leave after 5 pm because of daily shelling in the
late afternoon and evening.
"Now
it's just Russian and separatist ones," said Shazhkova, who remains
sympathetic to the Kiev cause. "If you're called a pig for ten years, you
begin to believe it, so we need some (other) information."
Avdiyivka
lies at the heart of the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has killed over
9,500 people since early 2014, and just 15 km (nine miles) north of the rebels'
stronghold in the city of Donetsk.
Much
of eastern Ukraine's broadcasting infrastructure is controlled by the rebels or
has been destroyed by the fighting. This has left Ukraine, whose own media
typically characterizes separatists as 'Russia-sponsored terrorists', outgunned
in an information war that has played a central role in the crisis.
In
its fight for hearts and minds, Kiev is redoubling efforts to improve access to
Ukrainian television and radio for the majority in the region who rely on
roof-top aerials.
It
is a particularly important weapon at a time when a much-violated ceasefire
deal is under threat after the deadliest fighting in a year and a fresh
political spat between Ukraine and Russia.
Shazhkova
said she goes to her neighbor's house to watch Ukrainian news via satellite,
where the signal is uninterrupted but which remains a luxury that few can
afford.
The
power of TV to sway opinion - and Kiev's struggle to win favor in separatist
areas - was illustrated by a 2015 Ukrainian opinion poll partly funded by the
British embassy in Kiev.
It
showed 89 percent of respondents said they relied on television for their news.
Over 52 percent in Kiev-held areas of eastern Ukraine were found to believe
partly or entirely what the survey called 'Russian propaganda'.
WATCHING
THEM, NOT US
Such
views might help to explain instances when Ukrainians living on the
Kiev-controlled side have proved unsympathetic to the Ukrainian cause. In July,
for example, around 100 residents of the Kiev-held town of Toretsk blocked a
road to prevent the Ukrainian army from moving equipment, according to local
police.
"When
you go around Avdiyivka, around 70 percent of residents' aerials are turned
toward Donetsk," Ukrainian soldier Masi Nayyem said, standing in cratered
no-man's land as gunfire crackled in the background.
"They're
watching them, not us. I think this is the main reason why there is a negative
attitude toward Ukrainians and especially the army," he said.
"There's a lot of misinformation."
Scrolling
through radio stations in Avdiyivka, Reuters got the clearest signal from a
Donetsk-based station called Kometa. This was airing a satirical news segment
about alleged police brutality in Kiev and corruption in the Ukrainian army.
Kiev
set up a Ministry of Information Policy in late 2014 to strengthen Ukrainian
media strategy.
Continued
fighting despite the ceasefire deal struck early last year and signs of
escalation in July make it vital for Ukraine to win over war-weary citizens in
the east, Deputy Minister for Information Policy Tatiana Popova told Reuters.
The
ministry hopes to restore coverage to much of Kiev-controlled northern Donetsk
region by October with the reconstruction of a TV tower that fighting reduced
to a heap of metal in 2014.
Western
backers, including the United States, have donated broadcasting equipment worth
60 million hryvnias ($2.4 million) for this and other projects, but the
cash-strapped government in Kiev cannot afford all the construction costs.
"The
biggest problem in terms of restoring broadcasting is the financing," said
Popova, adding that the Finance Ministry has repeatedly turned down requests
for money to build a new tower to reach rebel-held Donetsk.
Popova
and other officials told Reuters that separatists had also been deliberately
jamming Ukrainian broadcasts and shooting down smaller antennae rigged up in
the districts of Luhansk region that border rebel-controlled territory.
"Of
course they will jam us, shoot at our antennae and transmitters, but if we do
nothing at all, then we'll simply lose these people from an ideological
perspective as well as the region," Popova said.
TANNOY
OPTION
One
local official in Luhansk region has taken matters into his own hands, putting
up tannoy systems on the outside of administrative buildings. These are blasting
out a Ukrainian radio signal received via satellite in several villages where
coverage is limited.
Novoaidar
district chief Viktor Sergiyenko got his inspiration from World War Two, when
the then Soviet Union fought Nazi German invaders. "There are no issues
that cannot be resolved and I remembered how this problem was dealt with in
20th century wars. The solution was, if everything else is down, use
loudspeakers," he said.
Luhansk
region's TV station (LOT) is also determined to fight for hearts and minds in
separatist territory after its headquarters were seized by rebels in 2014,
forcing 50 of its 250 staff to move to a Kiev-held town.
LOT
broadcasts news as well as information programs with which it hopes to interest
citizens on both sides. Subjects include how to complete the paperwork needed
to cross the front line.
It
also airs a competition program where viewers, including those watching via
satellite from separatist-held territory, can phone in to win prizes or cell
phone credit if they answer a question on Ukrainian language or culture.
(Additional
reporting by Alexei Kalmykov; editing by Matthias Williams and David Stamp)
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