The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports created a “red policy” for the media: journalists were outraged

Journalists were outraged by the “red policy” of the Ministry of Education and Culture

MES/Facebook

The Ministry of Education and Science created an “editorial policy for the media”. IN documentswhich was sent out by the mass media, indicated how to correctly and incorrectly use names and abbreviations related to the department and its activities.

The creation of “ed policy” was justified by “improvement of interaction” and creation of “higher quality communication” with journalists.

This outraged the Ukrainian media, after which the Ministry of Education and Culture corrected its wording. From now on, the document is called “Handbook of the Ministry of Education and Culture” and contains only recommendations.

What is “red politics” about?

The MES was asked to always indicate the full name of the institution at the first mention in the text, followed by its abbreviation. At the same time, the reduction of “Minosvita” was “banned” because it does not take into account the scientific component. Later, the wording was corrected to “recommendation”.

The positions of the minister, his deputies and assistants are advised to be written with a lowercase letter and with the use of feminine forms.

The list of incorrect names includes “university”, “university”, “higher educational institution”, “higher educational institution”, “university”, “universities” (in the general sense).

Also, the ministry asked instead of “head teacher” to use the wording “deputy/deputy director”, not “educational institution”, but “educational institution”, not “educational process”, but “educational process”, not “get an education”, but “get education”.

In addition, the MES advises to call the “reorganization/liquidation/optimization of ZVO” “modernization of the ZVO network/consolidation process”.

The document also contains explanations of terms and abbreviations related to education and science.

The reaction of the media

Chief editor of “European Truth” Serhiy Sydorenko named a document from the Ministry of Education and Culture as a “dark house” for the media, referring to the instructions for covering topics that the Ukrainian authorities sent to the media in the early 2000s.

“Dear leadership of the Ministry of Education, kick out the person who advised you to do this with rags. And those who approved it – forever remove from communication, because they are simply not suitable for work in this area.

PS: I am ready to suffer the well-deserved punishment for using the officially prohibited term “Ministry of Education” in my post. If I understand correctly, tomorrow my parents will be summoned to the director of the ministry. I haven’t come up with another option yet.” – the media person wrote.

Editor-in-Chief of “Babel” publication Kateryna Kobernyk named “red policy” from the Ministry of Education and Culture is an oxymoron.

“It’s as if “Babel” wrote a regulation on the Ministry of Education and Culture and asked the ministry to live by these rules.” – she noted.

Also, the media woman believes that these are not recommendations, but prohibitions.

“Red policy from the Ministry of Education and Culture for journalists is not even a scoop. It is a complete misunderstanding of the limits and own powers.” – emphasized Kateryna Kobernyk.

What do they say in the Ministry of Education and Culture

The ministry has already responded to criticism from media representatives. They changed the name “Red Policy of the Ministry of Education and Culture for the Media” to “Handbook of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture”.

“This file should not in any way be taken as prohibitions. It was created for advisory purposes only to explain various educational and scientific terminology, show topics for which you can contact key speakers of MES, etc.” – noted the PR manager of the MES Anastasia Dombrovska in a comment for “UP. Life”.

Adviser to the Minister of Education and Science, Ilona Stankevich, admitted that they had made a mistake by using the word “red politics” in the title.

“In no way is this an instruction or an obligation. This file is a recommendation. We do not intend to prohibit anything. We only wanted to facilitate the perception of educational and scientific terminology.” – she told “UP. Life”.