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Point of View
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By Nadiya Virna
There were once a whore and politician. She sold her body, he sold his conscience and power. The whore was selling herself for three hundreds bucks, him, he was selling himself for some millions bucks and a term in office. Sometimes, their ways crossed: he was used to buy her flesh. Surely, for public money. It was found out, the state kicked her out in the street, and now, as if to mock at, it offered her some pay.
So they lived. Both of them served: a public service for him, and, say, a specific service for her.
He was used to serve in the daytime, she was used to serve by night. He was preparing himself to be elected, she was preparing herself to be selected. He worked with electors, she worked with clients. He promised to make everyone happy tomorrow, she made happy someone just now.
…Politician saw in her nothing but a mean whore, someone without any right, someone you could hit or insult. But try only insulting him! He has his immunity. Law is on his side. And she is outlawed, ousted from society. An outlawed more or less, not so important: this is Ukraine, gosh!
PS.17 December, is the day against violence to sex-worker. On the most of European countries prostitution has been decriminalized and legitimized. There, the state surveys continuously prostitution. But, the ours is too hard busy with a political one. |
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Monday, 11 August 2008 |
Journalists killed and missing – 0
New data
Georgiy Gongadze
08-07-2008 A panel of judges of the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the verdict in the case of the perpetrators of the killing of journalist Georgiy Gongadze – Mykola Protasov, Valeriy Kostenko and Oleksandr Popovych.
The Supreme Court rejected appeals of the defendants, who asked to reduce their sentences, Valentyna Telychenko, lawyer of the killed journalist’s wife Myroslava Gongadze, said.
The Supreme Court upheld the verdict, passed by the Kyiv appellate court, which had sentenced Mykola Protasov to 13 years, and the other two convicts to 12 years of imprisonment each.
Ms. Telychenko says Mykola Protasov asked the Supreme Court to let him keep his rank of police colonel and police awards since he was a police veteran. But the court rejected the appeal. Mykola Protasov did not take into account the fact that a police veteran is a person who carried out their official duties without fault, Valentyna Telychenko said.
Journalist Georgiy Gongadze disappeared on September 16, 2000. Three former officers of the Surveillance and Criminal Intelligence Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine – Valeriy Kostenko, Mykola Protasov and Oleksandr Popovych – were charged with murdering the journalist. Another defendant in the case – the ex-chief of the abovementioned police department Oleksiy Pukach is currently wanted by police.
March 15, 2008, the Kyiv appellate court found the three former police officers guilty of killing journalist Georgiy Gongadze and sentenced them to 12 and 13 years of imprisonment each.
The court sentenced defendant Mykola Protasov to 13 years of imprisonment, Oleksandr Popovych and Valeriy Kostenko to 12 years in jail each.
23-07-2008 Former officer of the State Guard Service Department of Ukraine Mykola MELNYCHENKO says he is concerned and does not understand why the US government and Federal Bureau of Investigation refused to carry out a sound examination of the recordings, which, according to Mykola MELNYCHENKO, he had made at the office of ex-President of Ukraine Leonid KUCHMA, and the recording devices he had used, Mr. MELNYCHENKO said at a press conference at UNIAN.
“I would like to ask journalists for help as the USA has rejected the agreement, previously reached with PACE to provide FBI experts to carry out this examination. As a result, the situation has reached a legal dead end now, which makes it impossible for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to solve high-profile cases”, MYKOLA MELNYCHENKO said.
As he commented on possible reasons for the situation, he stressed on certain unofficial agreements of persons, interested in impeding the investigation into high-profile cases, with the American party.
“With this position, the USA “wash hands” in the combat with corruption in Ukraine”, MYKOLA MELNYCHENKO said.
According to UNIAN, February 1, 2008, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Mykola HOLOMSHA said the prosecution would charge certain persons with planning to kill journalist Georgiy Gongadze the moment the investigation received the results of the examination of the recordings, made by MYKOLA MELNYCHENKO.
Mr. MELNYCHENKO came to Ukraine in January 2007 to cooperate with the investigators in the case of the murder of journalist Gongadze.
March 19, 2008, he said he would not continue cooperating with the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine to stimulate this institution to work efficiently and solve a number of high-profile cases.
Journalists arrested, detained - 1
15-07-2008 Sergiy Leshchenko, journalist of the Internet edition Ukrainska Pravda, was released from the Prosecutor’s General Office after interrogation on July 14 evening, Ukrainska Pravda reports. The interrogation lasted seven hours 20 minutes.
After the interrogation, an investigator handed Sergiy Leshchenko a summons to the next interrogation, scheduled for July 16, 9 a.m.
Sergiy Leshchenko was forced to arrive at the interrogation as the journalist had failed to come to the Prosecutor’s General Office before after received two summonses. The journalist was questioned about his interview with MP David Zhvania about poisoning of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko.
16-07-2008 President Viktor Yushchenko is concerned about the measures taken by the Prosecutor’s General Office to interrogate Ukrainska Pravda’s journalist Sergiy Leshchenko, the president said in a statement.
“The Presidential Secretariat claims the enforcement measures, taken by the investigators in the case, do not meet the principles of freedom of expression under the development of democratic legal society in Ukraine, and raise concern with the President of Ukraine as guarantor of human and civil rights and freedoms”, the president said in his statement.
“The Prosecutor’s General Office in the prosecution of its duties has to take measures based on the legislation of Ukraine in force exclusively and stick to the principle of equality of all citizens before the law regardless of their rank and status”, spokespeople for Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko quote him as saying.
“The enforcement interrogation of journalist Leshchenko when the abovementioned principle was broken demonstrates again the necessity to urgently speed up the prosecution system in Ukraine”, the president said.
Journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated - 5
03-07-2008 Journalists of the regional weekly Litopys Zakhodu Oleksandr Polishchuk and Oleksandr Lifun were attacked and savagely beaten. The incident took place in Horodyshche village (near Rivna), on June 28-29 night, ZIK reports.
The journalists say they were attacked as they decided to have a walk around Horodyshche with other guests after a birthday party of their friend. The local people beat them and loaded a part of the guests to the lorry and took them out to the field. Afterwards the offenders robbed a country house of the host.
The journalists say they called police. The Rivne regional police recorded their evidence.
The journalists filed an application to the Rivne police department on Sunday, June 29, but the offenders have not been identified yet.
Oleksandr Lifun still cannot understand why they were attacked, he told ZIK. He remembers however one of the offenders shouting: “Look! Another city guy!” The journalists were attacked by over 10 locals. Oleksandr called police and had his injuries recorded.
The desperate journalists asked the Rivne Independent Media Union to ensure the case would not be hushed up by the regional police.
09-07-2008 Yesterday, in Melitopol, cameraman of the news program Region of the MTV-Plus TV company Mykhailo Gareyev was attacked when shooting footage, spokespeople for MTV-Plus report.
As he was shooting footage in the Veteran shop, where the fire was being extinguished, a man, who, the cameraman says, introduced himself as a shop owner, rudely demanded to stop shooting and give him the cassette. Mykhailo Gureyev said he was a journalist and had a permission of a fire brigade to shoot the footage. The shop-owner however hit the journalist in the head and tried to grab the video cassette. When he failed to do so, he broke a camera microphone and returned to the shop.
The law-enforcement bodies instituted criminal proceedings over the fact of the attack and inflicting bodily injuries, the journalist told IMI.
18-07-2008 In downtown Kharkiv, representatives of the city state administration, owner of the Objective Media Group Oleksandr Davtian attacked Denys Obinenko, cameraman of the TV project Illegal Construction, journalist of the project Alla Plis reports.
Yesterday, when the journalists were shooting footage of the pilot project Illegal Construction simultaneously to the raid of the State Architectural Construction Inspection, Oleksandr Davtian told them not to shoot construction works on the premises of the Kharkiv hotel, and guards seized the camera and beat the cameraman savagely, the journalists say.
The businessman was attacked, Mr. Davtian told the website of the Objective Media Group he owns. He said: “I came up, a young man started pushing me away with his camera and filming. I asked him to switch off his camera and stop shooting me. I can’t say it was a blow, but it was aggression against me”.
The journalists appealed to the prosecutor to institute criminal proceedings under Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – impediment to practice journalistic profession, Alla Plis told IMI. The cameraman’s parents plan to ask the Embassy of Austria to deprive Oleksandr Davtian of the title of Honorary Consul.
24-07-2008 In Kharkiv, at the Pechenigy Field festival, cameraman of the regional state administration Oleksandr Donchenko was attacked by the bodyguards of businessman Vladyslav Protas. They did it after the camera crew started shooting the politician and businessman, well-known in Kharkiv, having a party with a company aboard a yacht. They threw the camera into the Pechenigy Reservoir and was later extracted by a professional diver, the Anti-Criminal Choice reports.
July 17, in downtown Kharkiv, representative of the city state administration, owner of the Objective Media Group Oleksandr Davtian attacked Denys Obinenko, cameraman of the TV project Illegal Construction.
25-07-2008 Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Vechiniy Ivano-Frankivsk Zynoviy Boychuk said his life was threatened. On July 22, at his meeting with the readers, he said the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk Viktor Anushkevychus had threatened him, Telekritika reports.
Zynoviy Boychuk, an oblast council deputy of the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, confirmed in a telephone interview with Telekritika, he had been intimidated by the city mayor (though first he claimed the mayor had threatened his family). “We switched on a loud-speaker function on the phone-fax and the entire newspaper could hear this conversation. It was actually the mayor’s voice thought he introduced himself as the mayor’s cousin Valeriy. We must have hurt some strings of his pride so he called me with threats”, said the editor-in-chief.
Mr. Boychuk says the intimidation could have been caused by a number of articles. “We earlier published an article on a fund of the city council, where all construction companies would have to transfer interests”, Zynoviy Boychuk said. “But they don’t do that actually. The current debt is 4mn hryvnias. In a year, they managed to buy only three flats for law-enforcement agents (the Security Service of Ukraine, police and prosecutor’s office received a flat each) for this money. And common people did not get any, of course”, the editor-in-chief said.
Zynoviy Boychuk says the problem is not only with the articles, but also a journalistic investigation the newspaper has been conducting for three months now. “He has distorted his autobiography a little. A great number of our people took part in some national liberation movements, now they often mention it in their life stories. His father is Lithuanian, so he wrote he had lived in Vorkuta in exile. But we found out he had lived there on the other side of the bars. During his life, the mayor had his surname transformed in a peculiar way. He was born Anushkevichius, went to school as Anushkevych, and then became Anushkevichus”.
The editor-in-chief of Vechirniy Ivano-Frankivsk promised to provide Telekritika with transcripts of his phone talk with the mayor.
The mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk Viktor Anushkevichus told Telekritika he was a little busy and said he would comment on Mr. Boychuk’s statement later.
New data on journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated
18-07-2008 The Kirovsky district court, Dnipropetrovsk, returned a case of the beaten Kyiv journalist, for further investigation.
During the preliminary consideration of the criminal case on the attack on journalist Natalia Ishchenko (Humba) on July 17, the Kirovsky district court of Dnipropetrovsk did not hold a preliminary hearing of the case and passed decision on further investigation as the investigators had indicated the wrong number of the pages in the case.
Natalia Ishchenko (Humba) was attacked on February 1, 2007 in the Kyiv-Donetsk train by businessman M. who was under the influence. The case was solved on May 24, 2007. The offender was charged under part 1 of Article 296 and part 1 of Article 122 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. “The trial has never began though over six months have passed since the crime was committed”, says Anton Khapersky, Natalia Ishchenko’s lawyer.
“A year ago, on July 12, 2007, the Kirovsky district court of Dnipropetrovsk held a preliminary hearing of the case violating a number of legislative norms, failing to notify the victim and her representative on the date and time of the court hearing”, the lawyer said.
“As a result of the actions of the judge, who violated Article 240, 246 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine, the case was revised and reassessed, and the charges against citizen M. were reduced”, the lawyer said. “The charges under part 1 of Article 122 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine were withdrawn”, he said. “At the same time, we had no possibility to exercise the right to appeal the court decision as we had not been notified in due time on the court decision in the preliminary hearing and the fact of holding the court session itself, which is violation of the legislation in force. We filed an appeal to the Justice Ministry of Ukraine and Chair of the Dnipropetrovsk regional appellate court demanding under the Law of Ukraine on the Status of Judges to institute disciplinary proceedings against the judge who had broken the law hearing the case”, Mr. Khapersky said.
As she commented on the situation, Natalia Ishchenko stressed: “The entire proceedings were kept secret”. “Neither me, nor my lawyer knew anything about the court hearing, held in July last year, or about the results of the hearings. We found out about further investigation only a year later, examining the case materials after the additional investigation, appointed by the court on July 12, 2007”, Natalia Ishchenko (Humba) said.
On March 1, 2007, the Darnytsky district court of Kyiv tried to dismiss a resolution on criminal proceedings against the defendant, Mr. Khapersky also said. But the decision of the district court was dismissed by the Kyiv appellate court on March 21, 2007.
Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship - 1
07-07-2008 UNIAN’s photo correspondent Vitaliy Danilchenko was not allowed to take photos at the session of the Nova Kakhovka city council, held on July 4, 2008, Telekritika reports.
Executive secretary Vasyl Akulenko told the photo correspondent to leave the session hall. When the journalist left, showed his journalistic certificate and asked for explanation, he was told he had not been accredited to attend the sessions of the city council. The official also recommended the journalist appeal to deputy prosecutor Yuri Karlenko, present in the session hall.
In his turn, Mr. Karlenko told the journalist to contact him when the session finished. The deputy prosecutor refused to comment on the situation, suggesting the journalist should ask city prosecutor Andriy Terno for comments.
Vitaliy Danilchenko filed an application to the city prosecutor referring to paragraph d of Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine on Combating Corruption (concerning officials withholding open information).
When the session was over, the correspondent asked the executive secretary to inform him on the accreditation procedure, specifying the terms of shooting at an open session of the city council. Vasyl Akulenko refused to provide it saying there was no such a document at all. He also recommended the journalist should contact city council secretary Oleksandr Lukyanenko. The secretary of the city council could not show the journalist any regulating document either.
Economic, political, indirect pressure - 1
30-07-2008 Savik Shuster left the TV channel Inter over a conflict with the channel management as the Presidential Secretariat allegedly tried to influence the editorial policy of the Savik Shuster’s Liberty show, the newspaper Segodnya reports referring to a source in the Savik Shuster Studios company.
“The Presidential Secretariat has been putting pressure on Inter saying what topics should be covered, what guests should be invited and what shouldn’t”, the newspaper quotes the source as saying.
“For example, Mykhailo Brodsky, David Zhvania, the prime minister’s advisor Oleg Medvedev have recently become personas non grata at the show”, he said.
“Savik had taken decision to leave long before, but the situation with Zhvania, when he was told not to invite the MP to feature in the show, was the last drop”, the source said.
The management of the Inter channel declined comment.
At the same time, according to the source from the Savik Shuster Studios, a new political talk show in the format of the popular Liberty with Shuster as host is likely to be bought by the TV channel Ukraine.
“No contract has been signed with Ukraine yet, but the draft has already been drawn up. It covers not only Liberty, but also another project Savik will produce for this channel”, the newspaper quotes the source as saying.
At the same time, representatives of the TV channel Ukraine did not confirm the information.
“In a new TV season to begin in autumn, the channel will launch new shows with new hosts. We are currently holding talks with both, production studios and well-known persons, but I won’t specify with whom”, Ukraine’s PR manager Hanna Ostapchuk said.
Inter’s representatives however deny Mr. Shuster is leaving the channel. “Savik is currently on vacation. We do not comment on his possible leaving the channel so far”, Inter’s PR manager Iryna Pavlyk said.
Segodnya says referring to other mass media Inter paid Shuster $50 thousand per months.
Moreover, according to the newspaper, Pakistani businessman Mohammad Zahoor, Chair and CEO of ISTIL, a metallurgic corporation, is going to invest in the Savik Shuster Studios.
In Ukraine, he is known for having owned the Donetsk metallurgic plant, which he later sold to the Energo concern, and for being a husband of Ukrainian singer Kamalia.
Legal actions against mass media and journalists - 2
03-07-08 Editor-in-chief of the Kontext Prychornomorya information agency Oleksandr Ostashko has filed a lawsuit against Odessa-based TV company ATV as the channel “has gone over the line with its actions and is far beyond the bounds of the professional code and decency”, Mr. Ostashko said in his statement.
The TV channel used texts of two different interviews, edited them into one statement saying some Odessa politicians were criminals, proUA quotes Mr. Ostashko as saying.
“A story presented one phrase from my interview, sounding rather logical, though made up from two different interviews (which was obvious). This “quote” was made up to produce an impression that I was calling some Odessa politicians “criminals”, defaming them in this way”, the journalist says in his statement.
June 17, the ATV channel was about to be deprived of the broadcasting license of the National Council for Television and Radio for using the following phrases in its analytical programs:
“While these Nazis are still at the helm”, “You see we have to live in the society ruled by these degenerates”, “I walked around, looked at these mugs, feeling like wiping their noses”, “We should have let them do it so that not only the city, but the entire world would see the swine face of Tiagnybok’s Svoboda and these so-called Cossacks from Lviv, Ternopil and other scum”, “They call themselves Ukrainians, being in fact Hitler’s fascist supporters”, “West-Ukrainian scum understand the language of the whip only, not of the weapon, but of the whip. Sons of bitches, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of serfs… It makes no sense to talk to these degenerates. The entire history of the western regions is the history of serfdom”.
The TV channel belongs to Igor Markov, city council deputy (Batkivshchyna), President of the Slavic Alliance company. In April, Igor Markov launched the Russian Club NGO in Odessa.
07-07-2008 Ukrgazsbank JSC filed a lawsuit against journalist Vakhtang Kipiani and editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda Olena Prytula. The Pechersk district court of Ukraine will hear the defamation lawsuit. The bank seeks defense of business reputation, refutation of false information and moral damages, Telekritika reports. The defendants do not know the lawsuit demands yet as only one of them – Vakhtang Kipiani - has received a summons. Olena Prytula suspects the lawsuit could have been caused by the article How the great Ukrainian was stolen by Vakhtang Kipiani, published by Ukrainska Pravda. The article mentions Ukrgazbank’s Honorary Chair Vasyl Horbal: “Director Stanislavsky has to leave when MP Tabachnyk sends hundreds of thousands of SMS, paid by hopeful for a mayor Horbal… According to a staff member of the headquarters, a very simple technology is used – Ukrgazbank has plunged 550 thousand UAH and using the client data base, generated as many votes as they planned on behalf of the clients without notifying them of course”.
“We are absolutely sure about our sources”, Ms. Prytula said. “But I believe this is the case when we cannot make them public. We are currently considering with Vakhtang what defense line to pick. If we are sued, we will think how to defend ourselves”. Olena Prytula said Ukrainska Pravda could be represented by lawyer Natalia Yakovenko in court, who had represented the Internet edition in the trial on Oleksand Moroz’ lawsuit, and the lawyers of the Institute of Mass Information, whom she considers highly professional.
Chief spokesperson for Ukrgazbank Volodymyr Leonov confirmed the information on the lawsuit, filed over Vakhtang Kipiani’s article “How the great Ukrainian was stolen”. “It is about the bank’s reputation”, he said. The plaintiff sees official apologies and 1UAH of moral damages. Mr. Leonov said the bank would represented by “a well-known law firm”, but refused to specify which one. A hearing of the case can be appointed for July 24. The case will be heard by Judge Maksym Onishchuk.
As he commented on the situation, Vakhtang Kipiani said Ukrgazbank would not benefit from the lawsuit. “I believe in terms of reputations Ukrgazbank has made a mistake. But it is their right, provided by the law. This publication and this fragment in particular is a part of a big political game around the Great Ukrainians project. The project ended in a scandal, but that was not my fault. This mini-investigation I published in Ukrainska Pravda, which was later reprinted by different mass media, is based on facts. Since they are trying to eliminate one brick from these fact, I’ll have to mention the others too. I thought society had made some conclusion from the situation. But the bank does not agree and says its reputation is worth 1 hryvnia. If so, let’s fight for this money”, he said.
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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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