Ukrainian mass media have had enough time to start feeling the consequences of the global economic crisis. Even the strongest editions and media holdings had to consider the so-called staff optimization, i.e. firing journalists. Such measures, obviously reasonable from the standpoint of the general economic situation, could actually be applied to those journalists that do not share editorial policies of media owners, which would be censorship. There are the major trends within the Ukrainian media market, impacted by the economic crisis.

New data on killed journalists

Georgiy Gongadze – 0

Journalists arrested, detained - 2

10.11.2008 The Prymorsky district court of Odessa issued a verdict in the case of journalist Igor Yakovlev engaged in a Dynamite project of the STV company. The journalist was sentenced to six years in jail and property forfeiture. He was arrested right in the court hall. STV’s staff members say in their statement it was the end of a three-year case of the former director general of the Akademia TV and Radio Company against his former employer – the Odessa National Legal Academy represented by Member of Ukrainian Parliament Sergiy Kivalov. 

Sergiy Kivalov and Igor Yakovlev had a conflict in September 2005. The ex-chair of the Central Election Committee of Ukraine told the director general of Akademia to resign threatening him criminal proceedings, Mr. Yakovlev said. Mr. Yakovlev was not allowed to enter his office first and 10 days later he was fired for absence from work. Moreover, he, a fourth year student at that time, was expelled from the Odessa Legal Academy. Igor Yakovlev was also deprived of the status of an Akademia co-founder.

Mr. Yakovlev took the case to the Malynovsky district court, which ruled on December 13, 2005 to reinstate Mr. Yakovlev in one of his former positions, a chief of one of the departments of the Akademia TV and Radio Company. But the department was liquidated. Mr. Yakovlev filed a number of complaints to the court, specifically seeking to get reinstated as one of Akademia co-founders and claiming the company property.

On January 31, 2006, the Prymorsky district prosecutor’s office (Odessa) instituted criminal proceedings against Igor Yakovlev at the request of the Akademia founders. He was accused of an attempt to dodge the draft (Mr. Yakovlev actually served in the Soviet Armed Forces from 1981-1983). The indictment was soon waived, but Mr. Yakovlev was detained again on June 13 to be later released under written undertaking not to leave Odessa.

This time Mr. Yakovlev was charged under Article 190 (part 4), Article 15 (part 2), and Article 386 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, i.e. forgery, fraud, preventing a witness, a victim and an expert to appear before court, forcing them to refuse to testify.

Mr. Yakovlev’s lawyer plans to appeal the verdict of the Prymorsky district court as, according to them, it was illegal to change the case jurisdiction from commercial to criminal.

10.11.2008 Ukrainska Pravda’s journalist Vitaliy Selyk, charged under Article 185 of the Administrative Offense Code with disobedience to police, was sentenced to 24 hours of administrative arrest.

Mr. Selyk was detained outside the Kyiv city administration as he was watching protests against raising communal transport fees.

As he approached the scene, the journalist saw two police cars run into each other and clapped his hands. As a result, he was detained. Policemen were dragging him by his arms, so the journalist started to struggle out saying he could walk himself, for which he was later sentenced under Article 185 to the 24-hour administrative arrest.

28.11.2008 Officials of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) forced Nazar Tsapko, a journalist of the Daily.ua website, into a car and taken to an undisclosed location. The journalist was not allowed to call his family and tell them where he was being taken.

Later, chief of the State Security Service of Ukraine Valentyn Nalyvaichenko confirmed the journalist was being interrogated by SBU. He said the journalist had been detained over publishing a copy of a document on Ukraine selling weapons on the Internet.

Journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated - 2

25.11.2008 A person, mentioned in an article of a journalist of a Lviv-based newspaper Lvivska Gazeta Visnyk Mista, is threatening the journalist. The newspaper had to request Oblast Prosecutor Oleksiy Bahanets and Chief of the Lviv Oblast Department of the Security Service of Ukraine Anatoliy Matios to ensure the journalist’s security.

In a November 20 issue, Lvivska Gazeta published the article Can We Trust Medical Laboratories? on the quality of medical tests, performed in medical laboratories of Lviv. The article reported on an experiment of Iryna Berezovska, Lvivska Gazeta’s journalist, who underwent an alleged urinalysis test, substituting it with tea. Both, the newspaper editors and an expert, asked to comment on the test, were shocked by false test results offered by the laboratory.

After the article was published, the journalist had a number of conflicts and suffered from assaults. First, somebody called and told her she had not had a right to publish the material. Further, as she was going home in the evening, a stranger tried to steal something from her pocket right on the bus before the other passengers. He was accompanied by two other men. 

They followed Lvivska Gazeta’s journalist even when she got off the bus. One of the stalkers kept saying: “Now we know where the journalist of Lvivska Gazeta lives”, which means the abovementioned persons were not simply hooligans. That evening the journalist was lucky to escape. She did not plan to go to police hoping it had been just misunderstanding, and if somebody did not like the article, they would find some other ways to settle the matter.

But after the incident on the bus, an outraged woman called Lvivska Gazeta’s editor-in-chief, she introduced herself as a staff-member of one of the laboratories, mentioned in the article, and demanded an meeting with the journalist.

25.11.2008 Jean Novoseltsev, a TSN news program correspondent of the 1+1 TV channel, received threats.

The journalist started to receive threats from unknown persons after the first story of a journalistic investigation series Deadly Esprit De Corps (Ukr. Zhest Mundira), revealing corruption of within the national law-enforcement bodies.

Chief of the channel’s information and social political broadcast department Natalia Katerynchuk requested the prosecutor general of Ukraine and chief of the Security Service of Ukraine to give the journalist a body guard.

“The author of the project, Jean Novoseltsev, tells in his stories about persons that went to jail and plead guilty as a result of tortures used by policemen. These are the stories of punishment without any crime and astonishing details of what is normally left beyond police reports and official statistics of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. Obviously, the idea of the project was far from popular in certain circles. First of all, those afraid to be punished for the crimes never normally solved due to the so-called ‘police code’ cover”, Natalya Katerynchuk says in her statement.

Jean Novoseltsev says he started to receive the threats the following day after the very first story was shown. “I don’t know who it could be. But I have been receiving threats from several sources. Firstly, people featured in the show were told: “You and your journalist are dead”. Secondly, somebody called from an unfamiliar number to threaten me using foul language. So my chiefs took decision to play safe”, he said. As he worked on the stories of the series, he had to face a number of conflicts, which could have resulted in the threats, the journalist says.

Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship – 0

New data on impediment to practice journalistic profession – 0

Economic, political, indirect pressure - 9

03.11.2008 Art Director of the 1+1 channel Olha Zakharova was offered to resign.

Director General of the 1+1 Group Oleksandr Tkachenko allegedly offered Ms. Zakharova to resign as he claimed she had to combine her work at the channel with managing her own company, 1+1 Video Design (which despite the name is not a part of the 1+1 Group). 1+1 Video Design specializes in design services for Ukrainian and Russian TV and cinematographicс projects.

Olha Zakharova denies comment. She is said though to consider quitting the channel to give all her time to her company. However, she has not filed a resignation yet.

04.11.2008 Over 30 employees of the Ukrainian Media Holding company have lost their jobs. Most of them were employed in the radio group, specifically its information service department, of the Ukrainian Media Holding.

The radio group of the Ukrainian Media Holding is currently going through the planned staff optimization. The job reduction is not connected to the financial crisis in the country, said Director General of the radio group of the Ukrainian Media Holding Bohdan Motulko.

Two percent of the staff members have already lost their jobs, including drivers and technical staff. A minor part of the journals of the information department have been fired too. At the same time, some vacancies remain open.

Presiding of the Group Borys Lozhkin says the decision on the staff reduction was not a group decision of the Ukrainian Media Holding. The decision on cost optimization is to be passed by the media holding and the radio group in fact. A number of administrative staff members are going to lose their jobs too.

06.11.2008 The Halytski Kontrakty Publishing Group, including the Kontrakty weekly and Lichny Schet magazine, has reduced staff and salaries.

As a result of staff reduction several journalists had to resign and those who could stay are currently facing salary reduction.

President of the Halytski Kontrakty Publishing Group Volodymyr Chepovy says the company is currently considering all ways of cost optimization under the present financial crisis in the Ukraine. It is planned to first reduce a number of pages in the editions.

The company has to consider cost optimization as the advertising volumes have dropped by 10%, he said. “We have great subscription, fantastic sales as under the current economic circumstances business editions are some kind of a pill for most readers. And I believe business editions will suffer much less than the rest [of the market], much less will the editions of our publishing house, which are really strong. But we are not a charity foundation, so we have to consider staff and cost optimization as a result of the drop in advertising volumes”, Mr. Chepovy said.

10.11.2008 The business daily Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya is now published on eight pages instead of 12, which is one of the measures the edition has taken to combat the current economic crisis. It is also planned to start staff reduction. 

Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Oleksandr Berdynskykh says two columns have been closed (both irregular, covering a new topic every time), while the Sport and Leisure columns have been united to be published on the same page (both of them had their own pages before).

Last week, the Kommersant-Ukraina newspaper switched to the format of eight pages once or twice a week. 

Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya’s editors were also offered to reduce one or two correspondents each. Mr. Berdynskykh does not deny the newspaper staff could be reduced, but it is not among the top anti-crisis measures and is not currently under consideration, Telekritika quotes him as saying.

10.11.2008 1+1 channel has closed down the 100% Ukraine project, says project chief Volodymyr Oseledchyk.

“It was quite long ago decided to close the 100% Ukraine project, after the third program if I am not mistaken. Director of 1+1 Production Vlad Korchyn told me about that”, Mr. Oseledchyk said.

Initially broadcast on Friday evenings, the project was soon shifted to Saturday mornings over its rather low ratings. The total of nine programs has been produced so far.

Volodymyr Oseledchyk says the channel has not offered Anna Bezulyk another project to substitute for 100% Ukraina. It has recently been decided to fire the editorial group of the Ya Tak Dumayu show, which was working on a format of a new social and political show.  

19.11.2008 The Gazeta Po-Ukrainsky project has been closed off.

The newspaper team comprised of some 200 persons is said to be fired.

In early November the newspaper changed from a daily to weekly format, dropping its Krayina project as well.

20.11.2008 Gravis LLC (Citi and Kino TV channels) plans to fire over 50 persons beginning December 1, most of them employed in the Morning Citi show and news programs, which has been confirmed by Gravis’ Director General Onno Zonneveld. He said Gravis could not afford news programs.

Mr. Zonneveld insists it has nothing to do with job reduction, as the company offers employees to resign themselves, in which case the company would not have to wait for two months and pay them compensations. “We have been restructuring Gravis, separating the two channels for over six months. It is actually a part of this restructuring. We have been optimizing the morning show and news production costs, which we find unreasonably high. Now Citi will not have its news program”, the Gravis director general said. “We are still trying to optimize staff losses. Some people have been offered part-time jobs, they can work in some production companies we cooperate with”, he said. Onno Zonneveld refused to comment on the actual cost of the “unreasonably expensive” programs.

The Morning City program was closed in early November. The channel plans to fire 18 people, while 34 people of the news program team are going to lose their jobs too.

25.11.2008 The team of the Dnipropetrovsk TV Service company (Channel 34) has gone on hunger strike protesting against the company liquidation and firing of the company managers, the journalists said in a live program of the channel, PiK Ukrainy reports.

In several days the TV channel can fall prey to a raider attack, says Channel 34’s journalist Ruslan Smyrnov. Thus the journalist had to go on hunger strike.

Mr. Smyrnov said a state registrator of the Dnipropetrovsk City Department of State Registration received on November 20 a forged minutes of a meeting of shareholders of Channel 34, saying it was decided to liquidate the company and appoint members of a liquidation commission.

Journalists say the liquidation was launched by Member of Ukraine’s Parliament Mykhailo Sokolov (the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc), who wants to take the TV channel under his control through the company.

Earlier Director of the communal company Dnipropetrovsk City TV Studio Yevheniy Nadion and Chair of the Board of the TV Studio Volodymyr Biliy said MP Sokolov had asked them to sell him a 36-percent stake in the channel.

28.11.2008 A number of technical staff members of the 1+1 TV channel have been told their jobs will be reduced in a two-month time. People were actually offered not to wait for the official reduction, but to resign themselves, promising to engage them in the channel’s future projects, Telekritika reports.

It is planned to hold a general meeting of the 1+1 team and the channel’s Director General Oleksandr Tkachenko, who will announce the reduction of a part of the jobs. According to unofficial sources, the reduction will impact mostly production personnel (around 80% of the staff).

The sources say the job reduction is planned as a result of the current economic crisis, the budget reduction and a drop in advertising incomes in 2008. It is still not clear whether the channel’s information service will be impacted by the reduction.

Earlier, representatives of the 1+1 channel said the company planned to launch staff optimization and reduce a number of its employees, planning to engage some of them in specific projects though.

New data on economic, political and indirect pressure - 2

20.11.2008 Staff-members of the Gazeta Po-Ukrainsky newspaper will have to look for another job if they are not ready to wait for their salary for two months.

On November 19, Volodymyr Ruban made public a letter to the newspaper team commenting on the situation with the edition.

“The crisis within the company can last from one week to one month. As of today, November 19, 2008, it is still not clear when Gazeta Po-Ukrainsky will be published four times a week and when we will be able to pay back the pending debts. The only thing we can guarantee is that 1) the newspaper will be published in the format of a weekly; 2) all debts will be paid back. We are convinced it will be done this year, but we cannot say when exactly. We suspend the Krayina project over financial problems.

“Neither do we initiate job reduction, nor close off the project. But taking into account the current situation, every employee should decide for themselves whether to continue working for Gazeta Po-Ukrainsky. If somebody has good offers now, they have a right to resign any moment to continue professional activities in another company. The employees willing to continue working on the project have to perform their duties in a regular way.

“We would appreciate the loyalty of those who will choose to get through these tough times together with Gazeta Po-Ukrainsky. The company management is doing its best to solve the financial problems. We undertake to inform all employees on any significant positive change. Thank you for understanding”, Mr. Ruban said in the letter. 

26.11.2008 The parties of the conflict around the Dnipropetrovsk-based Channel 34 have managed to meet halfway, said Director of Channel 34 Volodymyr Bilyi. Mr. Bilyi said on November 25-26 night the parties had talks and reached agreement on a number of issues, which was reported at 9 in the morning in a live program on the channel.

As a result, Channel 34 will continue working, staying neutral towards all political forces. The channel’s chiefs Yevheniy Nadion and Volodymyr Bilyi will keep their positions.

“This conflict was excessively emotional, but all the negotiating parties have managed to reject them. Therefore I would like to say how much I appreciate the reasonable and moderate position of Oleg Tsariov and Mykhailo Sokolov. I appreciate assistance of city council deputies and mayor Ivan Kulichenko and governor Viktor Bondar in resolving the conflict. What is most important, the position of the channel remains without change. The city will preserve its municipal channel, which will continue working remaining absolutely neutral”, Volodymyr Bilyi said. The parties plan to continue talks on the details.

The team of the municipal channel went on hunger strike on November as employees expected a raider attack. The conflict was caused by Yevheniy Nadion and Volodymyr Bilyi, each of them having an 18-percent stake in the channel, transferring their stakes to the third company in trust in order to ensure their property against raiders, they said. According to unofficial sources, the main reason for the conflict was an attempt of MPs Mykhailo Sokolov and Garegin Arutiunov (the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc) to gain control over the channel. They allegedly planned to pass the channel over to Oleg Tsariov, the leader of the Regions party in Dnipropetrovsk. On November 25, the Novy Mist Information Agency published a document proving that an off-shore company owing a 32-percent stake in the channel belongs to Mykhailo Sokolov. In fact, this company initiated an extra shareholder meeting scheduled for December 26.

Legal actions against mass media and journalists – 0

New data on legal actions against mass media and journalists - 4

04.11.2008. The Dniprovsky district court (Kyiv) satisfied a part of the lawsuit demands of the Delta Bank against Taras Zahorodniy. The court ruled a contradiction is to be published, denying any financial claims though. The case was heard by Judge Tetiana Savluk.

Mr. Zagorodniy, apparently not happy about the judgment of the court of first instance, filed an appeal against it to the Kyiv appellate court.

On October 31, 2007, Delta Bank initiated legal actions against the Economic News Information Agency, seeking 100 thousand hryvnias damages for injuries to business reputation of the bank.

24.11.2008 The Internet edition Oglyadach posted an official apology to Renat Akhmetov on its website.

The statement says the edition admits that the articles published on January 19 and 26, 2007 contained some inadequate and false information on Mr. Akhmetov.

“The High Court of London satisfied the lawsuit and ruled we would have to pay the damages to Mr. Akhmetov and all the costs of litigation. We accept the court verdict and to confirm how much we regret all the trouble that has been caused we are ready to pay the damages of $100 thousand to any charitable organization at the choice of Renat Akhmetov. We officially apologize to Renat Akhmetov for the problems that have been cause as a result of publishing the abovementioned articles”, says the official statement of Oglyadach.

26.11.2008 The Pechersk district court (Kyiv), chaired by Judge S. Vovk, satisfied the lawsuit, filed by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry Yuri Lutsenko seeking defense of honor, dignity and business reputation, against MP Vladyslav Lukyanov (the Regions party) and the newspaper Respublika Krym.

Under the court ruling, MP Lukyanov is to deny the false information on Yuri Lutsenko, published in his interview with Respublika Krym “Vladislav Lukyanov: Lutsenko – a bad policeman, a good PR manager” of July 31, 2008. Mr.Lukyanov is to publish the denial in the next issue of the newspaper.

Neither defendants, nor their representatives attended the hearing.

O. Khomenko, who represented the plaintiff, says the ruling passed by the Pechersk district court of Kyiv demonstrates “… that a press campaign, concocted by certain political circles to discredit Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, is nothing but an order and libel. All the allegations [brought against the minister] can be easily rejected before court”.

27.11.2008. A preliminary hearing took place in the Pechersk district court (Kyiv) in the case, initiated by Igor Urbansky against the newspaper Kommersant.

The newspaper published on October 15, 2008 the article Greek Faina Cargo Ship Of Ukrainian Origin. The deputy minister for transport and connection said the information on his alleged connection to the company owning the ship, publishing by the newspaper, is untrue and is actually a political order. Mr. Urbansky filed a lawsuit against the newspaper Kommersant and the authors of the article, Kostiantyn Usov and Marta Bondarenko, seeking defense of his honor, dignity and business reputation. Mr. Urbansy also seeks public denial of the published information.

Viktor Petrunenko, Igor Urbansky’s lawyer, said at the beginning of the sitting that they would accept an amicable settlement of the conflict if the defendant admitted the allegations as true and published the denial. The lawyer of the Kommersant-Ukraina company Oleksandr Voytov turned down the offer though.

The plaintiff’s representative insisted the entire article to be denied, not just specific facts. “We have claims against the entire article. Written in a rather arrogant style, the main goal of the article is to show society that Urbansky has some connections with Faina. A deputy minister for transport and connection, my client can by suspected in corruption”, Mr. Urbansky’s lawyer said.

As the preliminary hearing was completed, Igor Urbansky’s representative said he would recommend his client to seek moral damages of up to 1 million hryvnias. The next sitting was scheduled for December 11.

Lawsuits filed by the media and journalists - o

New data on lawsuits filed by the media and journalists - 3

03.11.2008 The lawsuit, filed by Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Ladyzhinska Gazeta Eduard Kosiak against the executive committee of the Ladyzhin city council and the mayor, has been partly satisfied.

The newspaper Ladyzhinska Gazeta filed a lawsuit against the executive committee of the Ladyzhin city council and mayor of Ladyzhin Valeriy Kolomeytsev over failing to provide information following three journalistic inquiries.

03.11.2008 The Shevchenkivsky district court (Kyiv) heard the lawsuit filed by Yuri Svirko against the Media Invest Group holding company over an ownership right to the domain izvestia.info. The former editor-in-chief of the newspaper Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya (owned by the Media Invest Group) claims his right to the abovementioned domain as he says he was never paid for it. 

The plaintiff says Media Invest Group has been endeavoring to delay the trial. One of the holding representatives, Director of the legal department Tetiana Viddi, attended a court hearing with an expired power of attorney. Further, Mr. Svirko said Media Invest Group did not provide the documents on the conclusion of the agreement on selling the domain izvestia.info. The judge ruled representatives of Media Invest Group were to provide copies of the required documentation and to receive a new power of attorney effective as of the next hearing, scheduled for January 21, 2009.

27.11.2003. The newspaper Ratusha has won the case against the mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovyi. Judge of the Halytsky district court (Lviv) Ludmyla Horodetska ruled on November 26, 2008 to publicly deny the information on the newspaper Ratusha, made public by mayor Andriy Sadovyi during a session of the Lviv city council.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said to a session of the Lviv city council in October 2007: “They [the newspaper staff] receive money on time and quite systematically, in envelopes though. And this is the case to be considered by law-enforcement bodies”. Mr. Sadovyi meant the team of the newspaper Ratusha who had not received their salaries for over three months at that moment as the newspaper was not funded by the state.

Mykola Savelyev, Ratusha’s editor-in-chief, sued the mayor over these words. The trial lasted more than a year, but neither Sadovyi, nor his representatives attended the court hearings. Judge of the Halytsky district court (Lviv) Ludmyla Horodetska ruled to deny the false information on the newspaper Ratusha, made public by mayor Andriy Sadovy, during a session of the Lviv city council.