Media Movement calls for transparent solutions and dialogue in StratCom Center overhaul
Media Movement members, civil society organizations working in the media and communications, as well as mass media, communications, and expert communities called on the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications for balanced, transparent and responsible solutions and for open professional dialogue in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security overhaul, according to the statement released by Detector Media.
The statement followed the temporary appointment of the former political consultant and political strategist Serhiy Bykov, a person who has worked with pro-Russian political forces and propaganda outlets, as the Center for Strategic Communications director, which, the Media Movement says, was an alarming signal for society.
“We consider it unacceptable to involve people with a tarnished reputation in the field of strategic communications,” the statement says.
The Media Movement welcomed the already announced plan by the MCSC to hold an open, transparent competition for the Center's management positions.
“We understand and support the expediency of institutionalizing the center and pooling the resources to ensure the state's effective strategic communications. At the same time, it is necessary to preserve the achievements and potential of the team working in the existing Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security while implementing changes,” the statement says.
The community remarked that over the past three and a half years, the Center’s team, in cooperation and constant dialogue with the civil society sector, international organizations, and the media and communications community, has brought to life many important and effective initiatives both in Ukraine and internationally, many of which aimed to expose Russian disinformation operations, building critical thinking skills among Ukrainians, and helping to improve the media consumption culture.
The statement stresses that abandoning these achievements creates reputational risks that may negatively affect both domestic trust and the trust of international partners.
“In our opinion, the current team's reputation, experience, international recognition and trust, their established partnerships and vision should form the basis for the further development of the reformed Center for Strategic Communications,” the statement says.
The Media Movement also notes that strategic communications is a multilateral process involving both state bodies and civil society, media, international organizations, foreign diplomatic missions, expert institutions, and other entities, and that mutual trust and open communication between the parties are key for the process to be effective. In view of this, the statement calls to actively involve civil society organizations and media and communication experts who have been working with the Center for Strategic Communications since it was first established in the discussion of the action plan for the reorganization, subordination and development of this institution, as well as of other issues in government communications.
“We are ready for an open and constructive dialogue and hope that the leadership of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications, as well as other state bodies involved in the media field and shaping Ukraine's united voice in the world, will also be open to it,” the community emphasized.
To date, the statement has been signed by:
- Media Movement
- NGO Lviv Media Forum
- Euromaidan Press
- NGO Detector Media
- Solutions outlt Rubryka
- Online media outlet Skhidnyi Variant
- Anastasia Rudentko, coordinator, media network Recovery Window
- Ukraїner
- Bohdan Lohvynenko, Ukraїner founder
- Lyubov Tsybulska, NGO Join Ukraine
- NGO Communications for Change
- StopFake
- Texty.org.ua
- Kateryna Tsybenko, independent strategic communications consultant
- NGO Institute of Mass Information
- National Interests Advocacy Network (ANTS)
- Maryna Bezkorovayna, media expert, program manager, strategic communications expert
- Natalia Popovych, NGO Rsilient Ukraine co-founder
- Pylyp Orlyk Institute of Democracy
- Roman Shutov, strategy advisor, International Media Support
- Yulia Kazdobina, senior researcher, foreign policy council Ukrayinska Pryzma
- Dmytro Tuzov, Radio NV host, Souspilnist Foundation
- Oksana Moroz, How Not to Turn Braindead
- Alina Frolova, charity organization Stratcom UA
- Oksana Horbach, strategic communications expert, head of the NGO Invictus Games Ukraine
The statement is open for signing; please send your signatures to: [email protected]
Read the full statement here.
Backstory; who is Serhiy Bykov
On December 6, 2024, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine (MCSC) created the Center for Strategic Communications by renaming a state-owned company for this purpose and appointed Serhiy Bykov as its head. In a comment to Detector Media, Bykov has said that these steps are necessary to institutionalize the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, which currently exists as an Ukrinform department run by Ihor Solovey. At the time of the company's renaming and Bykov's appointment as its acting head, the Center’s team had no specific proposals from the MCSC regarding future operations.
The appointed acting director Serhiy Bykov is a political scientist and political consultant. He has been making appearances in the media as the head of the Institute of Public Policy and Consulting INPOLIT since 2015. In 2017, he founded an NGO with the same name together with his then wife Anne Bykova. INPOLIT's expert pool included Oleh Pasternak, Kost Bondarenko, Andriy Zolotaryov, Anne Bykova, Denys Horokhovskyi and multiple other political scientists who are featured in the Texty.org.ua database of sham experts and covert promoters. Bykov was also involved in the creation of Yulia Tymoshenko’s “new Constitution” and supported "Medvedchuk’s peace plan". In September 2022, he announced that he was no longer working with INPOLIT, and now the NGO mostly appears in the media as the event organizer of so-called ZeMolodizhka – a youth movement announced in 2021 by Oleksandr Korniyenko. In 2020, Bykov told Detector Media that he was a volunteer communications consultant for the President's Office. Most recently, Bykov worked as a communications officer for the Ministry of Youth and Sports. After the backlash caused by his appointment, Bykov denied having worked for Medvedchuk or the OPFL, but noted that he had worked with Borys Kolesnikov, a member of the Party of Regions and the Opposition Bloc, as a political consultant.
Following Bykov's appointment as the state-owned company's acting director and a meeting between Andriy Nadzhos, deputy Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications for European Integration, and Ihor Solovey, the head of the Center for Strategic Communications, it was reported that the MCSC had offered all members of the Center's staff to go work in the newly created structure. This will happen after the New Year, Ihor Solovey said in a comment to the DM.
It was also reported on December 7 that the MCSC had announced an open competition to appoint the new director of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security after the institution's re-registration procedure is completed.
On the evening of December 7, Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytskyi announced that the acting director of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security Serhiy Bykov had been dismissed.
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