LUHANSK REGIONAL TELEVISION: FROM AGGRESSION ON TELEVISION SCREEN TO THE WAR IN THE EAST

Abstract

Modern Luhansk television awakens particular interest of researchers and this interest is connected with forming of such discourses as involving this region population into Russian-Ukrainian war, transforming of the main part of region territories into the stage of war activity and naked informational war which started earlier than active war events in the east of Ukraine which continue till now. Regional television because of that fact that it was and still is one of the main sources of information and of its interpretation for the recipient became one of the mechanisms of promotion of "Russian world" ideas in Luhansk region. On the examples of Revolution of Honour (October 2013 – February 2014) reflection the author shows different approaches to the named themes in all-Ukrainian, regional and Russian television news. The author has an opinion that the roots of problems in Crimea, Donets'k and Luhansk regions, in Ukraine in general origin in times of communist regime, which ideology and politics were directed to squeezing-out of national features and forming of cosmopolitan particularities on the basis of Russian imperial chauvinistic paradigm. In the article the preconditions of forming in Luhansk regional informational field of such phenomena as separatism, Russian informational and military anti-Ukrainian aggression are analyzed. Being adherents of all stated processes, regional TRC under the occupancy by Russian mercenaries and terrorists were seized by them and stopped their broadcasting, later they were "nationalized". But main part of the Ukrainian journalists went away from the territory of region and didn't cooperate with occupying armed bands. Now the process of regional broadcasting renovation is going on in the territories controlled by the Ukrainian state power. From 13 local and 3 regional channels 2 regional (IRTA and LOT) and 1 local TRC (STV (Severodonets'k)) partly restarted their broadcasting.