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Point of View
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 By Victoria Sumar
Today Vecherniy Kharkiv daily and Status quo online edition came out with a report that police officers had suffered bodily injuries as a result of a search operation at the apartment of Vyacheslav Ismaylov.
Actually, the both editions referred to a press release issued by the ministry of the Interior saying “when the above-cited citizen was informed through the house intercom we had to proceed with a search, he began uttering some obscenities and said he would use a firearm, if police officers approached his apartment”.
“Thus, we took a decision to call “Berkut” special force unit officers with the intent to force the entry door. The operation was conducted in presence of search witnesses and a representative of the local government body.
“As the apartment was searched, the journalist’s behaviour, as well as this one of his sons and wife was cynical, they used bad language, threatened the police officers with a physical violence and dismissals from the ministry of the Interior.The police officers recorded all that on video”. Frankly, it is hard to imagine how some unarmed persons could threaten the armed cap-a-pie “Berkut”-men with a physical violence.
Our journalist who is investigating the Klymentyev’s case now, was present at the scene. He said several times they called an ambulance for Ismaylov's wife, in order to prevent syncope. Not only she was unable to threaten anybody, she could not speak, as she was shocked by such a number of masked men armed with Kalashnikovs assault rifles.
There were five “Berkut”-men for each person in the apartment, and these brave soldiers, as it was found out, suffered physical violence… Ismaylov was crying they tried to plant some white powder to his apartment, the journalists heard it. And today the police reported they did find drugs in the apartment…
So, I would like to ask these men with shoulder straps, who had signed this press release, and maybe this is a naïve question: have you ever heard what honour is?
All this smells a bad movie. But, unfortunately, this is Ukraine's reality. This is a semi-criminal state where human rights is nonentity, where nor law, neither legitimacy exist. This is a country where its citizens are totally unarmed in front of the arbitrary rule of those who are supposed to protect them. This is Ukraine in 2010.
Is this Ukraine for people? |
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Monday, 23 June 2008 |
Ukrainian journalists mostly enjoyed peace in April. IMI registered only two attacks among other offenses, currently considered by local prosecutors who might rule to start criminal proceedings under Article 171 (impediment to practice journalistic profession). The long-lasting struggle of Lviv-based newspaper Ratusha’s editor-in-chief Mykola Savelyev, illegally fired by the Lviv city council, is finally over too. The journalist got back his job as a court found the session of the city council, when he had been fired, as illegitimate.
Journalists killed – 0
New data on journalists killed and missing:
Gongadze case
15-04-08 Lawyer Viktor Chevguz filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine against the verdict the Kyiv appellate court had issued concerning his client, Mykola Protasov, convicted of killing journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
Mr. Chevguz believes the Supreme Court has to cancel Article 166 of the Criminal Code of 1960, applied against Protasov, claiming the defendants conspired to kill Georgiy Gongadze, the lawyer told journalists.
At the moment, it is the only appeal, filed by the lawyers of the defendants, convicted of murdering the journalist. On March 15, 2008, the Kyiv appellate court sentenced three killers of journalist Georgiy Gongadze - Mykola Protasov, Valeriy Kostenko and Oleksandr Popovych - to 13, 12 and 12 years in jail respectively.
The defendants and their lawyers had a month to appeal the verdict of the court.
24-04-08 The fact that there are no originals of the recordings, made by ex-state guard major Mykola Melnychenko, impedes the investigation into the case of the masterminds of the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and makes it impossible to hold a phonoscopic examination of the recordings, Deputy Prosecutor General Holomsha told journalists on Wednesday in Kyiv, Interfax Ukraine reports.
“This case is not being slowed down as our opponents claim. The only factor, slowing down the investigation into the criminal case, is the lack of the recordings (ex-state guard major) Melnychenko has to provide and the examination”, he said.
At the same time, when asked whether Mr. Melnychenko was actually cooperating with the investigators at the moment, Mr. Holomsha said: “Any contradictions we had with Melnychenko have actually been eliminated. We have (an effective) cooperation (with Mr. Melnychenko)”.
The deputy prosecutor general also said the progress of the investigation would depend on Mr. Melnychenko and international experts of the states, which would partake in the examination.
Mykola Melnychenko, former officer of the state guard service, left Ukraine in autumn 2000. In April 2001 he received political asylum in the USA.
Journalists arrested and detained: 0
Journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated: 2
11-04-08 Yuri Sheliazhenko, Internet journalist writing for the infocorn.org.ua website, a well-known civic activist fighting against the “tender mafia”, said he had been detained illegally by unknown persons, who used force against him. The journalist presented the information on the detention in detail on his blog and provided Telekritika website with photographic and video evidence and a statement he had filed to law-enforcement agencies.
On April 10, at about 8 p.m., Yuri Sheliazhenko went to Panfilovtsiv Street to check the information that the office of the European Consulting Agency and MP Oleg Liashko’s public reception were located at the same place – 1, Panfilivtsiv Street, Kyiv, the journalist told Telekritika. The European Consulting Agency is the owner of the zakupivli.com portal, which publishes information on state purchases. The Agency also owns a number of tender documentation patents.
Yuri Sheliazhenko says: “Staying outside, I was taking pictures of the panorama, when I was approached by a person wearing a uniform cap, who said this building was private property, and I allegedly had no right to shoot it. I answered I was in a public place, and had a right to take pictures of the background, moreover I was doing my job as a journalist. The European Consulting Agency LLC has its registered office at the abovementioned address. I got interested in this organization holding a journalistic investigation into the facts of squandering state funds in the sphere of state purchasing goods, works and services. At the same time, the building had plates saying Office of Member of Ukrainian Parliament Oleg V. Liashko at both entrances. It means at that moment I was covering activities of the representative of the state government and local self-government in Ukraine under Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine on covering performance of state governing bodies and local self-governing bodies in Ukraine by mass media, Articles 9 and 29 of the Law of Ukraine on Information”.
Several people came out of the building, one of them introduced himself as Mykola Yevhenovych. They seized the journalist’s mobile phone and camera, Yuri told Telekritika. Yuri says he was then dragged to the garage, situated not far from the scene.
“I was shouting I was being kidnapped, but nobody responded and helped me. They closed the door. I was lying on the floor alone with these gentlemen. One of them told me not to move. And when I mentioned my constitutional rights, he said he had all the rights, including the right to urinate on me. However, he did not carry out his preposterous threat. I was lying on the floor next to a dozen monitors, office fans, a car with the number plate AA 3147 BX”, Yuri says on his blog.
The journalist managed to take out a card from his camera without the strangers noticing it. Now he has some pictures and a short video, Mr. Sheliazhenko told Telekritika. Yuri spent last night at his friends’ place.
“These people probably did not want to show there was some connection between the MP’s reception and the firm with the registered office at this address”, the journalist said.
At the same time, MP Oleg Liashko (the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc) told Telekritika he knew nothing about the assault. He has nothing to do with the office at 1, Panfilivtsiv Street, Kyiv, Mr. Liashko said. “I have my office on the fifth floor of 6/8, Bankova Street. I work as a deputy chair of the budget committee. What Panfilivtsiv Street? I don’t understand what you are talking about”, the deputy said.
Yuri Sheliazhenko filed statements to the Pechersk district police department and Pechersk prosecutor’s office, Kyiv. Mr. Sheliazhenko also plans to address leaders of law-enforcement agencies and the president with an open letter, demanding to institute criminal proceedings on the fact of the assault.
Yuri Sheliazhenko says police collected information on the attack, took the pictures, taken by the journalist, his evidence and passed the materials over to the Pechersk prosecutor’s office, which is supposed to institute criminal proceedings under Article 171 (impediment to practice journalistic profession). Mr. Sheliazhenko says he is not sure the prosecutor will react adequately to the materials and his appeal. But the journalist stresses the police actually did their best to investigate the case in detail.
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18-04-08 Orthodox priests of Moscow Orthodox Church attacked editor-in-chief of Vinnytsia-based 20 Khvylyn daily Oleksandr Chovhan, he said in an article on the newspaper’s website.
Several staff members of an advertising agency tried to install a billboard next to a Ukrainian orthodox church on Pyrogova Street, Vinnytsia. The newspaper says they first had a conflict with the senior priest of the church, Father Sergiy. The priest protested against the billboard being installed next to the church while the employees of the advertising agency referred to a written permission to do so. According to one of them, the priest used foul language and tried to pull down two workers from the ladder.
Afterwards, Father Sergiy and his assistants seized a Dictaphone of Oleksandr Chovhan, who had arrived at the scene as a journalist after one of the employees of the advertising agency called him. The priest deleted his comment he had given before.
“He was extremely emotional telling me there couldn’t be any outdoor advertisements next to the church of God and used foul language addressing a young woman controlling the workers, who were installing the billboard. Then he realized he must have said something wrong with my Dictaphone on, so he hit me, grabbed the Dictaphone and yelled to one of his assistants to delete the recording”, Mr. Chovhan told Telekritika. The journalist says the police was next to arrive at the scene.
Oleksandr Chovhan registered the blows inflicted and filed a statement to the law-enforcement bodies. Under Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, a person shall be made criminally liable for impeding a journalist to practice journalistic profession. Mr. Chovhan however fears the incident will be hushed up as the priest mentioned high-ranking patrons he had in the oblast council during the conflict.
Telekritika has not managed to take comments of the opposite party yet. Spokespeople for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchy say they know nothing about the incident. The secretary of the Vinnytsia eparchy was out of the office during the Holy Week.
On Monday, Father Sergiy commented on the incident in an interview with 20 Khvylyn’s journalist: “We wouldn’t let them install the billboard. They came and started demanding their rights. Then they quarreled, quarreled, quarreled. And he started recording it all. I took his Dictaphone and told Misha: “Delete it”. Misha deleted (the recording) and we gave it back to him… I pushed him away. And guys, who were standing next to me, grabbed his arms, began pulling him to the ground by the hair!.. He shouldn’t have interfered! We calmed him down a bit, brought him to his knees before the church of God”.
The materials were passed to the local prosecutor’s office. It is still not clear weather criminal proceedings will be instituted.
New data on journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated: 2
02-04-08 Last month, the Rivne prosecutor’s office finished investigations into two criminal cases, opened against Ukrainian businessman Anatoliy Pekhotin, currently living in the USA, charged with threatening to kill Rivne Vechirne’s journalist Vlad Isayev and impeding him to practice journalistic profession.
February 23, 2007, the abovementioned businessman threatened the journalist with a gun as the latter had witnessed an armed attack at a parking area. Mr. Pekhotin had already shot his gun in the air several times and wounded one of the security personnel of the parking area. The investigation lasted over a year. First, law-enforcement agencies refused to institute criminal proceedings against the businessman. Later, urged by journalists and international press freedom institutions, criminal cases were opened, officials however delaying actual investigation allegedly over the absence of the suspect. It was not so long ago that Rivne prosecutor Roman Fedyk proudly reported the investigations had been completed and all materials passed to the court.
A preliminary hearing in the case of the businessman, scheduled for April, was not held. Justice Panas, chairing the Rivne city court in the case, had to adjourn the hearing to April 18 as neither defendant, nor his representative had arrived at the court. Moreover, the prosecutor’s representative ignored the preliminary hearing too.
Rivne Vechirne’s journalist Vlad Isayev, a victim in the case, was told the hearing had been adjourned as the court had no information on Mr. Pekhotin’s current whereabouts. The address he had mentioned when he was charged and then had to give a written undertaking not to leave Rivne, proved to be fake. Mr. Pekhotin lives neither in Klesov nor in Rivne, as mentioned in the documents. Moreover, it is not clear whether he received a court summons. One of the journalist’s lawyers Volodymyr Sokal comments on the situation:
“I believe it is the prosecutor’s office to blame for the fact that the court cannot start hearing the case. I mean when this case was investigated by the prosecutor, an investigator had to suspend it as they couldn’t establish Mr. Pekhotin’s whereabouts. As a result, they couldn’t charge him. He was announced as wanted. But only officially. In fact, the businessman had no problems traveling around Ukraine and the USA. I mean the resolution was not properly executed. And it’s not clear who is to blame for it. But we have already filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General demanding him to solve the situation and establish those guilty in it. Later when the police detained Mr. Pekhotin and brought him to the prosecutor’s office, the prosecutor brought in an indictment and picked undertaking not to leave the city as a preventive measure, being aware Mr. Pekhotin did not live at the address he mentioned, but in the USA. He had said that to the local press several times before. He had also said he was still going to fly to the USA regardless of the undertaking not to leave Rivne he had signed. The court established Mr. Pekhotin did not live at the address he had indicated as his. With the abovementioned, we are going to ask the court to change the preventive measure. If the prosecutor cannot ensure that the defendant arrives in court, failing to carry out his immediate duties, if the defendant does not live in Rivne or in Rivne oblast and has no registered address there, he should be taken into custody for the period of the court hearing. Moreover, there are two legal grounds now to do that – multiple violation of the written undertaking not to leave Rivne and failing to appear in court. As to the prosecutor’s office, its representatives ignore the hearings too. How can they know the reasons for adjourning the hearing? That’s why they don’t take adequate measures. And we are going to file a new complaint to the Prosecutor General about that”.
* * *
08-04-08 The Kyiv district prosecutor of Donetsk instituted criminal proceedings against Hennadiy Kalishchuk, director of the Donetsk regional sports complex Olimpiysky, suspected of attacking Igor Tkachenko, correspondent of the Ukrinform news agency, Ukranews reports.
The criminal proceedings were instituted under Artile 125, part 2, of the Criminal Code (light bodily blows, inflicted deliberately, which caused short-term health problems or temporary loss of capacity to work).
Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship: 0
Economic, political, indirect pressure: 0
Legal actions against mass media and journalists: 0
New data on legal actions against mass media and journalists: 1
02-04-08 The High Court of Justice, London, scheduled another hearing in the Renat Akhmetov vs. Oglyadach case for June 5, 2008, Delo reports. The court plans to establish the level of damages, inflicted by journalist Tetiana Chornovil’s materials to the Ukrainian businessman.
During the previous hearing, the court found Oglyadach and other defendants – Oglyadach’s former editor-in-chief Oleg Medvedev, former politics column editor Yaroslav Bilyk and journalist Tetiana Chornovil – as having stretched a point in their material.
Tetiana Chornovil says she has not seen the court ruling yet. The journalist is convinced there is nothing to fear even if the court passed a verdict in favor of the Ukrainian tycoon as Ukraine has no international agreement with Great Britain on execution of court judgments.
Media law expert Natalia Petrova however says: “A verdict of the British court is not going to be executed directly. But there are procedures providing for execution of these judgments. Akhmetov’s lawyers will bring the verdict of the British court to a Ukrainian court and file a lawsuit demanding to execute it. The Ukrainian court will have to consider it”.
The parties have different versions why the lawsuit was filed in a foreign court. Ms. Chornovil says Renat Akhmetov needs his lawsuit to be heard by the British court for the sake of “self-promotion”.
“He is launching his companies in international markets”, the journalist said. “If the case were heard in Ukraine, Akhmetov would have definitely won it. But he does not need it in Ukraine”. In addition, the long distance prevents the defendants from proving their right. Among other factors in their way is the fact that the defendants have no registered British address.
“It is very expensive”, Ms. Chornovil says. “Our edition does not agree to that. We sent defending materials, but the court did not accept them – we had no legal address”.
Natalia Petrova still claims Oglyadach could have found the way-out here too.
“There are British lawyers that could have helped the Ukrainian journalists to file a protest and notify their address for the court to send them copies of all documents”, she says.
Renat Akhmetov’s lawyer Mark J. Macdougall says his client picked the scene of the legal duel following different reasons.
“Mr. Akhmetov has chosen London because the courts of England are greatly respected. Besides, false information was published by Oglyadach on the Internet and disseminated in the United Kingdom, where Mr. Akhmetov has some professional and business reputation”, he said.
Nobody can say seriously that the judgment of the British court in this defamation case is a result of political or other pressure, Mr. Macdougall said.
Moreover, the plaintiff’s lawyer says they always contact the media. If they have some conflicts, they mostly demand that false information is refuted. Mr. Akhmetov brings matter to court only in extreme cases, Mr. Macdougall said.
Ms. Chornovil does not deny the fact that Mr. Akhmetov’s representatives demanded to refute the information Oglyadach had published. However, the businessman also had two other demands to resolve the conflict: the edition was supposed to eliminate all the materials concerning the conflict from Oglyadach and other web-sites, which had posted them, and pay moral damages reparation. The Internet edition did not object to the demands. But it made its demand too – instead of the allegedly distorted biography, the businessman was asked to provide his own version of his history.
“We were ready to refute anything in the world to get Akhmetov’ detailed biography”, Ms. Chornovil said. “If you read an official one, all you see is that he left school and then, 10 years later, headed a bank in Donetsk”.
Oglyadach has never received a reply to this offer.
Lawsuits filed by mass media and journalists: 0
New data on lawsuits filed by mass media and journalists: 1
7-04-08 The Lychakiv district court of Lviv, chaired by Justice Tetiana Hirnyk, satisfied an administrative lawsuit, filed by Ratusha’s editor-in-chief Mykola Savelyev against Lviv city council, which had fired Mr. Savelyev and appointed Yaroslava Vovk as a new editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
Mr. Savelyev protested against the night session, which had fired him, considering it illegitimate, he told IMI.
During the trial, the city council refused to provide the recordings of the session. Later, after a parliamentary inquiry, it had to deliver the recordings, which proved to be edited, with the part in question deleted.
The court however found the night session illegitimate. The deputies voted after 11 p.m. They debated issues previously failed, which under the law, could not be considered by the same session of the city council.
Mykola Savelyev believes the city council will not appeal the judgment as its violation is too obvious.
IMI |
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Last comment
 The Ukraine MPs are going to resume an old practice of criminal liability for libel. May 17, the MP Vasyl Kyselyov, who had been elected as a member of the Party of Regions list, has submitted a respective bill at the parliament (Verkhovna Rada). |
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Debate
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Wednesday, 09 June 2010 |
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The first week of June and the last week of May a number of incidents have been reported which are evidence of attempts made by new Administration of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and some representatives of the governing party in the regions to restrict rights and freedoms of the mass media and Ukraine’s citizens. These are alarming attempts of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and, being in his second job, co-owner of the most important TV channel to exert influence on procedure of delivering the authorizations to broadcast for two independent and critical towards authorities TV channels, Channel 5 and TVi. As response to this pressure the journalists have started a campaign “Stop to censorship!”, held the Journalist’s Day. One should remark, the action which involved several prominent journalists from national TV channels has not been even mentioned in the news at these TV channels. These are facts involving pressure by government bodies. |
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