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]

National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine sanctions

On August 20, 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) decided to impose personal sanctions against the founder of Strana.ua, Igor Guzhva, and directly affiliated legal entities.^[49][50] According to the NSDC Guzhva was "spreading pro-Russian propaganda."^[51] After this, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on the implementation of this decision.^[52] The presidential decree stipulated the blocking of the Strana.ua website and the obligation of providers to close access to the site, as well as to the pages of the publication on social networks.^[50] The Strana.ua domain was blocked by the registrar company. The editorial board moved its Internet resource to the domain strana.news and subsequently created several more mirrors of the website (in particular, strana.today). The National Commission for State Regulation in the Sphere of Communication and Information ordered all providers in Ukraine to block any mirrors of the Internet publication.^[53] Guzhva said that he intended to challenge in court the presidential decree on sanctions against him.^[54] Igor Guzhva issued a statement in which he called the blocking of Strana.ua a legal uproar and extrajudicial punishment, as well as stated that sanctions against him and the Strana.ua publishing companies would not stop the work of the publication.

The head of the Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Serhiy Tomilenko, said in relation to the blocking that the extrajudicial blocking of opposition media operating in the Ukrainian legal framework is a rejection of legislative guarantees of the independence of the press from the authorities. The Council of Europe platform for the promotion of protection of journalism and safety of journalists has called the decision on sanctions and blocking of Strana.ua a threat to the media freedom in Ukraine.^[55] The European Federation of Journalists issued a statement saying that the imposed sanctions are “a threat to the press, media freedom and pluralism in the country”.^[56] OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro expressed concern over the sanctions and said that such restrictions “negatively affect the work of media companies and journalists”.^[57]

In November 2021, the Supreme Court of Ukraine accepted for consideration Igor Guzhva's lawsuit challenging President Zelenskyy's decree imposing sanctions against him.^[58]