Igor Guzhva
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Igor Guzhva | |
|---|---|
Ігор Анатолійович Гужва | |
 | |
| Born | 23 May 1974 |
| Citizenship |  Ukraine |
| Alma mater | Donetsk State University |
| Occupation | journalist |
| Known for | editor-in-chief of the website Strana.ua |
Igor Anatolyevich Guzhva (Ukrainian: Ігор Анатолійович Гужва, romanized: Ihor Anatoliyovych Huzhva; born May 23, 1974) is a Ukrainian journalist, commentator, television host, and editor-in-chief of the website Strana.ua. From 2013 until July 29, 2015, he was the owner and leader of the media holding Multimedia Invest Group. Since October 1, 2018, he has been a political refugee in the European Union (Austria).[1]
Igor Guzhva was born on May 23, 1974, in the city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk Oblast.
From 1991 to 1996, he studied at the Economics Faculty of Donetsk State University.[2]
In 1994, he started working as an economic observer in the newspapers Vest and Donetsk Kryazh.[2] He became the editor of the business application in the newspaper Salon Dona i Basy,[2] and in 1998, he became the deputy editor-in-chief.[3]
From 2001, he worked and lived in Moscow. He was a project coordinator in the Foundation for Effective Politics of Gleb Pavlovsky. He analyzed the situation in the information field of Russia and CIS countries, as well as overseas. He also worked as a correspondent for the magazine Expert, covering politics and economics in the CIS.[2]
Journalist career
Segodnya
In 2003, he returned to Ukraine, to Kyiv and became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Segodnya.[4] In 2004–2006, together with the Spanish consulting company Innovation, he carried out transformations in the newspaper. The redesign of the publication was implemented. Segodnya became a mass quality newspaper (the concept of Qualoid – quality tabloid) of a modern European model.
From 2004 to the end of 2008, the newspaper Segodnya reached leading positions in the market of printed media in Ukraine.[4] The daily circulation of the newspaper increased from 100–110 to 150-160 thousand copies. The newspaper became a leader in the printed media in Kyiv.[5]
On April 10, 2007, the website Segodnya.ua was launched,[6] which soon turned into a full-fledged online newspaper. Starting from 2011, according to the rating of Bigmir, this online publication occupied the first place among online media in Ukraine in terms of monthly audience coverage.[7]
In 2012, Guzhva was fired from the position of editor-in-chief of the newspaper Segodnya by the decision of the supervisory board of the owner of the publication - the company SCM Holdings of businessman Rinat Akhmetov.[4][8]
In an interview with the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, Igor Guzhva stated that his problems began from the moment of the publication in April 2011 in the newspaper "Segodnya" of a report on the huge suburban house of the then-president.[9]
Members of the Segodnya collective submitted a statement in which they declared that they consider the dismissal of Igor Guzhva to be revenge for his principled stance in defense of the interests of the labor collective and the fight against corruption and censorship in the newspaper, and they asked Rinat Akhmetov to take personal control of the situation.[9] Soon after, a statement in sharp tones was posted on the SCM website by the SCM Supervisory Board, stating that the decision to dismiss Igor Guzhva was final and would not be revised.[4]
Multimedia Invest Group
After leaving the Segodnya newspaper, Igor Guzhva moved to Moscow, and since March 2012, he has been part of the leadership of the Russian publication Moskovskiye Novosti as the chief editor. In January 2013, Guzhva returned to Ukraine, where he created the media holding Multimedia-Invest Group.
The holding included: the daily newspaper Vesti (with a circulation of 370,000 copies - at that time, the most massive and widely circulated newspaper in Ukraine) founded in May 2013, the internet publication Vesti.ua, the socio-political weekly Vesti. Reporter, founded in partnership with the Russian magazine Russian Reporter in August 2013, the UBR satellite news channel, and the radio station Radio Vesti broadcasting in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro.[10][11][12]
After the change of government in Ukraine as a result of the Euromaidan, Igor Guzhva's holding was attacked by the authorities and nationalists, who accused the holding's media of being pro-Russian.[13][14]
In May 2014, the first criminal cases were initiated against companies belonging to Multimedia-Invest Group concerning non-payment of taxes.[15]
Igor Guzhva denied the accusations and stated that the authorities and nationalists were attacking the holding company because it had an independent position and covered the situation in the country objectively. Including regarding the War in Donbas.[16] Igor Guzhva, in particular, outlined his position as answers to questions from his colleague, Novoye Vremya editor-in-chief Vitaliy Sych.[17]
In July 2015, Igor Guzhva announced the sale of his stake and his resignation as head of the holding and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Vesti.[18]
Strana.ua
On 16 February 2016, he announced the launch of a new online publication Strana.ua, which employed former journalists of Multimedia Invest Group (in particular, Svitlana Kryukova). He described himself as the sole investor in this media outlet.[19][20]
Since 3 June 2016, together with Kryukova, he became the host of the programme Subjective Results of Friday from Strana.ua on the TV channel NewsOne.
During 2020, Strana.ua ranked first[21] and second [22] in the rating of Ukrainian online media.
Throughout its history, the site has repeatedly claimed attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to organize pressure on its editorial policy, fabrication of criminal cases against the site's management and applied to international structures for protection.[23] In 2021 Ukrainian NGO's Institute of Mass Information and StopFake stated that the website was one of the "five most unreliable media sites in Ukraine, often resorting to hate speech and manipulative, distorted headlines" and was "parroting Russian propaganda" and publishing Russian based COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.[24]