Communists did not seem to have a summer vacation too as they interrupted a live program of the Krym TV channel and used force against journalists.

Journalists killed and missing – 0

New data on journalists killed and missing

Georgiy Gongadze

07-08-2008 Leader of the Socialist party of Ukraine Oleksandr Moroz has never accused ex-President Leonid Kuchma of ordering to kill journalist Georgiy Gongadze, Mr. Moroz said on Thursday as he commented on his recent interview, in which he had said he did not accuse Kuchma of anything, spokespeople for the Socialist party report.

“I have never accused Kuchma of ordering to kill Gongadze. In dozens of interviews (including the said one) I would say some people, who presented information to Kuchma in the way they needed, used specific traits of the former president’s character”, Mr. Moroz said.

“It’s investigators job to establish who, how and for what did it. I am convinced they will manage to do that by involving the facts, recorded by Melnychenko. The authenticity of the recordings was verified by experts long ago”, he said.

“According to the recordings, an honest and brave journalist was killed by that governing regime, without involving any foreign secret services. And the present regime depends fully on the former one, so the inquiry is being impeded”, Mr. Moroz stressed.

Ukraine has obligations to the Council of Europe, he said. There is the PACE Resolution and a pledge of the present president to solve the case, Mr. Moroz also said.

“These bills of trust can be paid with the truth only. And the truth is the names of masterminds, organizers and perpetrators of the crime. The names and a court trial. There is no other way to whitewash the image of Ukrainian authorities at least partially”, he said.

08-08-2008 Myroslava Gongadze, widow of the killed journalist Georgiy Gongadze, urges leader of the Socialist party of Ukraine Oleksandr Moroz to go to the Prosecutor’s General Office and witness in the case of her husband’s murder, she told Radio Liberty.

The investigators have to establish the connection between what the former president actually said and the murder, the journalist’s widow stressed.

“If Oleksandr Moroz has any additional information on the connection (between the president’s words and the murder - IMI) now and (knows) whether Kuchma is a real mastermind or not, I guess it’s his duty to go to the Prosecutor’s General Office and witness there”, Mrs. Gongadze said.

“The investigators have to summons Oleksandr Moroz and ask him a number of highly specific questions. He seems to have had some very special information for the last eight years, which neither victims, nor investigators know so far”, she said.

Earlier this week, she was summonsed to the Prosecutor’s General Office again to witness in the Gongadze case, Myroslava Gongadze said. The journalist’s widow denies comment on the current progress in the inquiry into the masterminds and organizers of the murder of her husband.

“I cannot comment on it as I don’t know what the Prosecutor’s General Office is doing. They don’t inform me on the progress of the investigation. Neither do I have access to the case materials”, Mrs. Gongadze said.

“I have stressed on several aspects, which I believe have to be investigated within the case again. I hope something will be done. We have not seen any results in the masterminds inquiry in the last two years yet, though the investigator claims he has many versions”, she said.

Earlier, leader of the Socialist party of Ukraine Oleksandr Moroz said he had never accused Ukraine’s ex-President Leonid Kuchma of ordering to murder Georgiy Gongadze.

The investigators will have to answer all questions in the case, using the Melnychenko recordings, the socialist leader said.

At the same time, Radio Liberty quotes Oleksandr Moroz as having said almost eight years ago: “President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma is also a mastermind, who systematically controlled the execution of his order”.

13-08-2008 Ex-Prosecutor General of Ukraine Mykhailo Potebenko says he was on business trip in 2000 so he found out about the letter of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, asking the Prosecutor General to protect him, only after the killing of the journalist, Mr. Potebenko told Delo.

“The Prosecutor’s General Office receives a lot of such letters (requesting personal protection - IMI). But when we would contact police or the Security Service about bodyguards, they would demand payment for that”, Mr. Potebenko said.

“The Prosecutor’s General Office has no money for that. As to Gongadze’s letter, it was checked by my first deputy. He passed this case to a regional prosecutor”, he said.

“At that moment I was on a business trip. I found out about the letter after the journalist was killed”, Mr. Potebenko said. He also said he had never seen the letter.

As he commented on the death of the former police minister Yuri Kravchenko, Mr. Potebenko said: “He was caused to commit suicide, it was not a murder”.

Journalists arrested, detained – 0

Journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated - 1

21-08-2008 Groups of Crimean communists, led by MP Leonid Hrach, interrupted a live program of the Crimean TV channel Krym and used force against journalists.

26-08-2008 The Presidential Secretariat demands that law-enforcement bodies react adequately to the offense, committed by representatives of the Communist party of Ukraine against the Crimean TV channel Krym.

Actions of the Communist party of Ukraine have lately started to resemble activities of an organized criminal group, Deputy Chair of the Presidential Secretariat Igor Pukshin said.

“The violent offense, committed against journalists in Crimea, is not just another case of hooliganism and violation of constitutional rights of citizens to information. Those were deliberate consistent actions against the Ukrainian state”, Mr. Pukshin said.

The deputy president’s chief-of-staff says Ukrainian society and leading political forces, representing citizens of Ukraine, have to decide whether such anti-state ideology can exist in Ukraine.

Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship – 0

Economic, political, indirect pressure - 2

05-08-2008 Deputies of the Baryshivka regional council at the July session voted unanimously to sack editor of the local newspaper Baryshivski Visti Natalia Kyrylenko.

In December 2007, they tried to fire Ms. Kyrylenko, but failed. A resolution, sacking the editor, was signed by Chair of the regional council Hanna Shevchuk. In the same resolution, she ordered the newspaper team to leave the office of the newspaper.

Natalia Kyrylenko says the chair of the regional council issued an illegal ownership certificate on the communal property. “Then, in December, I went on a week-long hunger strike to warn them. As for the last resolution, I have taken it to court. It is still under consideration. I was not sacked, but got reprimanded. I filed a complaint to a prosecutor, who appealed the illegal reprimand. But the local authorities turned down the appeal”, the editor said. She says she has been persecuted as the newspaper, co-founded by the regional council, regional state administration and newspaper team, does not agree to change its statute. The regional authorities suggest an editor be hired based on a labor contract, but not a resolution of a session of the regional council.

“A meeting of the co-founders was scheduled for July 9. I was invited to it to support the introduction of the amendments to the statute, but I did not go”, Natalia Kyrylenko told Telekritika. “We sent a letter to the co-founders, requesting them to report to the newspaper staff. This year, the newspaper has not received any funds from the authorities. We wrote them a letter saying if they failed to fund us, they would seize to be the newspaper founders”.

The reaction to the letter was opposite to the expected. The authorities issued a resolution, signed by the chairs of the regional council and regional state administration, firing the Baryshivski Visti editor beginning July 15, 2008, appointing Olena Priadko acting editor of the newspaper.

Natalia Kyrylenko refused to fulfill the resolution, calling it illegal. She appealed to the Parliamentary Committee for Freedom of Expression and Information, the Regional Press and Information Center, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, and law-enforcement bodies.

August 1, 2008, a commission of the Kyiv regional council arrived at Baryshivka. Its members recommended Ms. Kyrylenko step down. But she refused to do so.

Chair of the Baryshivka regional council Hanna Shevchuk says the resolution firing the newspaper editor was approved by the July 31 session of the region council. “Our council is comprised of representatives of 10 parties. And I think it is quite indicative that this resolution was backed unanimously. The reason for firing the editor is that she did not introduce amendments to the newspaper statute for a year and a half. She did not do that as she did not want to work under a labor contract. If she does not agree with the decision of the deputies, she should go to court”, the regional council chair said. Ms. Shevchuk says Natalia Kyrylenko was not fired in December as her proposal was not supported by the chair of the regional state administration. Later, it gained support of the deputies and the chair of the regional state administration too.

14-08-2008 At 11, the delo.ua portal, owned by the Economica publishing house, suffered from a DDoS attack from ten thousand computers, spokespeople for the publishing house report.

The portal editors say the DDoS attack was caused by the article Russia continues war on the Internet and the material Russia and Georgia launching electronic hoaxes, published in the newspaper Delo. The articles describe technologies and mechanisms of DoS attacks, aimed against state websites of both countries.

“It is proved by the character of the attack and its immediate goals, specifically the abovementioned materials”, said the chief of the technical support department of the portal Illia Yakovlev. Economica’s PR Director Vitaliy Maksymov says it could not have been a coincidence.

“It must have become obvious long ago nobody can feel safe in the present world and try to live with a neutral position, so dear to Ukrainians. All of us are in some way in the front line of the information warefare. The most important thing is not to lose this grip on reality of what is going on and cover events and their possible consequences in the most unbiased way”, Vitaliy Maksymov said.

Legal actions against mass media and journalists - 1

06-08-2008 Persons, charged with committing extortion, filed a lawsuit against Donetsk-based newspaper Donbass and columnist Tetiana Zarovna, PRO TEST reports. Andriy Nifontov, Volodymyr Schmidt and Oleksandr Liliak demand that some phrases be refuted in the article A gang of tenants arrested, published on February 5, 2008. Specifically, “The Kyiv district court of Donetsk has been hearing a criminal extortion case of Andrey Nifontov, Vladimir Schmidt, Aleksandr Liliak” and “He beat her” referring to Andriy Nifontov.

The plaintiffs consider the phrases stated above as untrue and damaging for their reputation, honor and dignity. They ask the court to order the journalist and the newspaper to pay the damages of 12,5 thousand UAH each. A hearing was appointed for August 18 in the Kyiv district court of Donetsk.

Nifontov, Schmidt and Liliak are accused of concocting a criminal scheme to extort flats of other people. They would buy out a part of a flat to later create unbearable conditions for their co-tenants to force them to sell their part of the flat for nothing.

Tetiana Zarovna told Telekritika she considered the entire situation as putting pressure on the press: “I cannot understand how the court could accept this lawsuit if hearings in the criminal case are not completed yet”.

The Donbass columnist says the three accused are considered to be an organized criminal group in the case. They were first kept in custody, but were later released based on a court decision. “Andriy Nifontov is a head of this organized criminal group. Under the law, there is no alternative preventive punishment for him. This court decision is illegal”, the journalist stressed.

At the same time, Tetiana Zarovna said she had had a right to cite the names of the accused. “Firstly, it was a court report. Secondly, it is a high-profile case of great social significance. Thirdly, their names were made public at the press briefing of the Donetsk UBOZ (Directorate for Combating Organized Crime) chiefs anyway”, she said.

All mass media have been warned against publishing negative information about the accused in the case, Tetiana Zarovna said. “It was some kind of warning – don’t interfere with the case, which looks like criminals fighting against journalists”, Ms. Zarovna said.

“This citizen, Nifontov, is a real criminal. A criminal, absolutely convinced in his impunity. By the way, it was the Kyiv district court of Donetsk that legalized all his illegal deals”, the Donbass journalist said. She says the prosecution has already expressed no confidence in three judges in the case.

She says the legal actions against the newspaper are another attempt at justifying themselves: “Nifontov is kind of saying there will be no damning verdict”.

“I am convinced it is one of the cases when journalists should unite. If we lose our right to work in court and cite the names of criminals, what else can we do?” the journalist stressed.

New data on legal actions against mass media and journalists  

12-08-2008 The newspaper Vechirniy Kyiv will not fulfill the decision of the Kyiv appellate court, which has rejected an appeal, filed by the newspaper, and confirmed the judgment of the Shevchenko district court of June 9, 2008 in the lawsuit of Vitaliy Klichko, Telekritika quotes Vechirniy Kyiv’s acting editor-in-chief Roman Kostrytsia as saying.

The Shevchenko district court held an open hearing of a civil lawsuit, filed by Kyiv city council deputy Vitaliy Klichko against the communal newspaper Vechirniy Kyiv, demanding to refute untrue information, and ruled to satisfy a part of the lawsuit demands. According to the court decision, a copy of which was provided to Telekritika by Vitaliy Klichko’s lawyer Valeriy Karpuntsov, the court found the information, published by Vechirniy Kyiv in the article Top four womanizers on July 4, 2008, as untrue and damaging Vitaliy Klichko’s honor, dignity and business reputation.

The court ordered Vechirniy Kyiv to publish a material refuting the untrue information about Mr. Klichko in the same print with a headline Refutation, in the same part of the page, within a month after the date of the court decision. The refutation shall be published by September 7, 2008 if the newspaper does not appeal the decision in a higher appellate court.

Lawsuits, filed by mass media and journalists - 1

15-08-2008 The newspaper Ladyzhinska Gazeta took decision to initiate legal actions after Ladyzhynska Gazeta’ s editor-in-chief E. Kosiak did not receive information upon three inquiries, filed to the executive committee of the Ladyzhin city council. The editor-in-chief filed an administrative lawsuit to the Ladyzhin city court on August 15. The Institute of Mass Information provides legal support in the case.

The executive committee of the city council, represented by Chair V. Kolomoytsev, did not answer any of the newspaper’s inquiries, offering it instead to apply for accreditation, contacting other mass media, and checking reports on speeches of state officials as information sources.

The Institute of Mass Information provides legal support within the project Promoting Active Citizen Engagement in Combating Corruption in Ukraine “Gidna Ukraina” – Improving Access to Information and Legislation for Media Sphere, implemented by IMI and Management Systems International. Every journalist, who believes their right to information has been violated, can contact IMI for legal support.

New data in lawsuits, filed by mass media and journalists - 1

22-08-2008 A preliminary hearing in the case of the newspaper Ladyzhinska Gazeta vs. Ladyzhin city council was appointed for September 2.

The newspaper went to court after Ladyzhinska Gazeta’s editor-in-chief E. Kosiak had not received replies to three information inquiries, earlier filed to the Ladyzhin city council. The editor-in-chief filed an administrative lawsuit on August 15. The Institute of Mass Information provides legal support in the case.

IMI