8 Krupska str, Kyiv, 01042    tel. (044) 566-3085, 566-1534
 
     
« Strengthening Independent Media in Autonomous Republic of Crimea» - Internews launched competition

Internews Network’s Strengthening Independent Media in Autonomous Republic of Crimea (U-Media) Project is calling for grant proposals for projects that increase the quality and quantity of journalistic material available to the Crimean public.  The main goal is to empower citizens in Crimea by expanding their access to information and their ability to participate in public debate and political decisions on issues that affect them.
Read more...
 
 

Point of View

Does it honour you?

ImageBy 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?

 

IMI outcome


Upcoming events


Barometer for February 2009
Friday, 05 June 2009
ImageIn February 2009, the number of journalists attacked while on duty grew, four of such cases registered. More mass media were closed down and journalists forced to resign. This month, however, economic pressure on the media somewhat subsided, eight such cases registered. The major disappointment of the month was a verdict of the Zaporizhzhia appeals court which found the defendants in the Igor Aleksandrov case not guilty.

New data on killed journalists – 2

The Igor Aleksandrov case

19.02.2009 The defendants in the journalist Igor Aleksandrov case were released in a court hall. Police Lieutenant Colonel Igor Krivolapov, charged with falsifying the case of the killing of TV journalist Igor Aleksandrov from Slovyansk and organizing a number of killings, was released by the Zaporizhzhia oblast appeals court.

A panel of judges, chaired by Judge Oleg Dutov with Judge Valeriy Fomin and people’s assessors ruled to release Igor Krivolapov in the court hall. He was found not guilty in the Karpenko and Zhemov charges, while the remaining charges of facing out a service vehicle were correlated with the time he had already done (over 5 years).

Other policemen – Albert Vinnychuk, Sergiy Shlomin, and Oleksandr Herasymenko – were released too. The court considered the proof of guilty, provided by the prosecution, not sufficient and the investigation as conducted with gross violation of the Criminal Procedural Code and the Constitution of Ukraine. Vyacheslav Apozyants (another defendant in the Verediuk case) was released in his own custody, ruled the court as it returned the case to the prosecution for further investigation.

Volodymyr Boyko and Mykhailo Orlov received life sentences each for killing the Karpenko brothers and Zhemov. Another defendant – Sergiy Kostiuchenko – was sentenced to 7 years in jail (for inflicting grievous bodily harm). Two other defendants - Sergiy Sherkovets and Yuri Shevchenko – were released in the court hall as their custody terms covered their sentences.

Upon the verdict, the court announced that the investigator of the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine Oleksandr Kalifitsky had practiced illegal methods of collecting evidence, putting pressure on the defendants and witnesses and manipulating public opinion (giving interviews). Moreover, according to the court, Mr. Kalifitsky threatened the defendants in the court hall, demonstrating his disrespect for the court.

Ten people from Donetsk oblast found themselves in the dock during the trial. Four of them were police officers, referred to ‘Krivolapov’s gang’, ‘the gang of police werewolves’, ‘Old City gang’ etc.

The defendants were charged with a number of grave crimes, including falsification of investigation into the murder of the TV journalist Igor Aleksandrov from Slovyansk; poisoning of Yuri Verediuk, accused of killing the journalist but found not guilty, and his ‘instructor’ Igor Blagov; abduction and killing of the Karpenko brothers, businessmen from Kramatorsk; abduction and killing retro automobile collector Igor Zhemov; abduction of a student from Kramatorsk etc.

It took two years to complete the investigation into the criminal case, comprised of dozen volumes. All episodes in the Aleksandrov case were ruled to be investigated as separate cases.

The Georgiy Gongadze case

25.02.2009 Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Holomsha said before a general meeting of the Prosecutor’s General Office that investigators had interrogated Ukraine’s ex-President Leonid Kuchma in the Georgiy Gongadze case.

“Yes, ex-President Kuchma has been interrogated in this case”, said Mr. Holomsha. The Deputy Prosecutor General did not comment the information on Leonid Kuchma’s alleged meeting with Russia’s ex-President Volodymyr Putin before the abduction of Georgiy Gongadze. “I’d like to leave it without comment”, said Mr. Holomsha.

“He (Kuchma) has been released and the process (of interrogation) completed”, he said.

The deputy prosecutor general confirmed the ex-president had been interrogated on Monday. However, he refused to specify when the next interrogation might take place.

“I think it’s up to the investigators. It is not for comment or publication”, he said. Mr. Holomsha says it was not the first interrogation of ex-President Kuchma in the case. When asked if the interrogation was connected with new evidence in the case, he said: “It was about old facts, specifications made by the litigants”.

Journalists arrested, detained

New data on journalists arrested, detained

 

Beating, attacks, intimidation - 4

2.02.2009 TV company Grad’s camera crew was attacked while on duty.

The camera crew of correspondent Yuri Basiuk and cameraman Yuri Vesylyk were filming people in Dumska Square in Odessa, who “were rushing to greet Mayor Gurvits”. When shooting footage, they were assaulted by the mayor’s assistant Igor Khotin with a police officer standing next to him. “They grabbed the camera and tried to take his mobile phone too. The police officer ignored our request for help. Later, we got back the damaged camera without the cassette with the recordings”, says the journalist.

Grad’s editor-in-chief Larysa Shvets has confirmed this information and specified that when the journalists were shooting footage, a police officer approached them and asked what TV channel they represented. The cameraman and the corresponded introduced themselves and showed their IDs, afterwards a person ‘in private clothes’ came up to them, grabbed the camera and took it to the building of the city executive committee. The journalists say it was Mr. Khotin.

Ms. Shvets says the TV channel has filed complaints to police, the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine.

5.02.2009 The camera crew of the Dnipropetrovsk-based TV studio Resonance-TV was attacked by a security guard of the Agroavrora company in Prydniprovske village, Nikopol region, Dnipropetrovsk oblast.

According to Resonance-TV’s editor Natalia Hrekova, people from Prydniprovsky, Nikopol regions, co-owners of the Kreyser Avrora collective farm, called the Dnipropetrovsk-based TV channel. They had problems with Agroavrora, a private company based on the collective farm, as they were not happy about the property shares they received and the process of dividing land. The conflict has been dragging for years now, and the parties failed to meet halfway so far. “We promised people we would come to the scene, we decided to get comments of all parties in the conflict”, said. Ms. Hrekova.

On February 5, the camera crew – Natalia Hrekova, journalist Maria Viatkina, and cameraman Andriy Kovbasa, arrived at the village. They filmed a spontaneous rally of the villagers, their comments and an interview with the director and chief economist of the collective farm. “When we were shooting footage – the building itself – a stout man came running. Without any explanation or introduction, he attacked the camera and tore some of its parts off”, the editor says. The camera crew showed him their IDs but he never introduced himself, she said. Villagers recognized the man – it was Oleksandr Fedirko, security guard of the Agroavrora company. When they tried to calm him down, the security guard responded with profanities.

“We called the Nikopol region police at once. Ten minutes later, a police officer arrived who took evidence. After our colleagues from Dnipropetrovsk called the chief of the oblast police department, a deputy chief of the Nikopol region police arrived at the scene, joined by an operative group”, said Natalia Hrekova.

Police officers took evidence of the camera crew and drew up a protocol. Natalia Hrekova says criminal proceedings are to be initiated based on the fact of hooliganism. 

11.02.2009 Member of the business newsroom of the Kyiv Media Holding (columnist of the Authorities and Politics of the newspaper Khreshchatyk) Yevhen Dykyi says he was attacked by acting editor-in-chief of the newspaper Vechirniy Kyiv Roman Kostrytsia. Mr. Dykyi says Mr. Kostrytsia attacked him when the journalist demanded his salary. Roman Kostrytsia denies the allegations and says the journalist has received all due salary. Yevhen Dykyi resigned last week, he said.

Yevhen Dykyi says the incident took place on February 9 in the office of the newspaper Khreshchatyk. The journalist says when they were talking, Roman Kostrytsia pushed him off of the chair and ‘started beating’. He says he has a Dictaphone recording of his conversation with the acting editor-in-chief as evidence. 

“The incident took place immediately after I told Roman Kostrytsia about the full amount of salary I was due to receive beginning last year’s autumn. Roman Kostrytsia is in charge of salary issues in the Kyiv Media Holding. But I never received this salary. Moreover, Mr. Kostrytsia threatened not to pay me for the previous months at all. Besides, Roman Kostrytsia wanted me to resign (previous week, on February 5, I had filed my resignation trying to get the money I had earned, but as it did not help I withdrew it)”, Yevhen Dykyi told Telekritika. He also suspects that the incident took place due to the article ‘Two-meter high blow from Leonid Chernovetsky’ he had published on February 4 in the online edition Propaganda.

Roman Kostrytsia denies the journalist’s allegations and says the motives Yevhen Dykyi refers to are not true. “The communal mass media have no salary debts, as he says. The 2008 salaries have been transferred to Dykyi’s salary card. That’s why there is no cause of the conflict cited by Dykyi”, said Roman Kostrytsia. Yevhen Dykyi has received about 56 thousand hryvnias for the last year, which is registered in the employee earnings certificate provided by the Kyiv Media Holding. 

But Mr. Kostrytsia claims there is another conflict between the company and the journalist. “Last Thursday, February 5, Yevhen Dykyi filed his resignation. Yesterday, on Monday, he tried to withdraw it, which he was not allowed to do. Afterward, in the afternoon, Yevhen Dykyi stormed into an office while my colleague and I were there and tried to make a scene. First he referred to some phrases which I had allegedly said, then using criminal terms he accused me of withholding his salaries. Then his Dictaphone fell out of his jacked with batteries falling to the floor and he left the office”, said the active editor-in-chief of Vechirniy Kyiv.  

Yevhen Dykyi filed a complaint about the beating to the Shevchenko district police, Kyiv. He says the evidence of the beating was not registered due to the lack of any physical evidence. The complained was registered as No3628 as of February 9, 2008, about which he received notification card No38. Mr. Dykyi also provided copies of medical documents validating his injuries.

Yevhen Dykyi’s chief, Taras Zahorodniy, who according to the journalist witnessed the conflict with Roman Kostrytsia, says he is surprised by such actions of his employee. “There was no fight. I don’t know how he was injured. Yesterday, he didn’t have them registered, but today he has them”, said Mr. Zahorodniy.

16.02.2009 The Hyundai of the owner of the Antena Media Group, the well-known journalist from Cherkasy oblast Valeriy Vorotnik, exploded in Cherkasy.

The explosion took place not far from the office of the media group (a TV channel and a newspaper) at 220, Shevchenko Boulevard, Cherkasy, when Valeriy Vorotnik came up to the car and was about to get in. Valeriy Vorotnik has just taken part in a live program announcing the beginning of rallies protesting against closing down of five schools in Cherkasy. As the car exploded, the journalist was thrown away from it.

The windows of the nearest buildings were shattered and a number of cars damaged as a result. The parts of the car were scattered within 200 meters around the scene. Criminals must have expected the journalist to sit in the car when the car exploded.

Security Service officers, police and rescue workers arrived at the scene.
    
New data on beating and intimidation - 2

13.02.2009 The Odessa oblast prosecutor instituted criminal proceedings based on the fact of impediment to practice journalistic profession. The proceedings were initiated based on a complaint, filed by the director of the TV channel Grad, deputy of the Odessa city council Anatoliy Balinov.

It has been established that on January 30 Grad’s correspondent Yuri Basiuk and cameraman Yuri Vasylyk were filming people entering and leaving the Odessa city council in Dumska Square in Odessa at the request of Grad’s editor-in-chief. ‘An unknown person approached the camera crew and without introducing himself grabbed the camera damaging it and seized a cassette with the recorded footage’. The unknown person impeded the journalists to practice their profession in this way. The cassette was never found.

The Independent Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters has requested the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the Odessa Oblast Prosecutor to launch an investigation into the accident and to institute criminal proceeding against the persons behind it. A number of MPs of the Party of the Regions have expressed their support of the TV channel Grad.


18.02.2009 Founder of the Cherkasy-based Antena Media Group Valeriy Vorotnik accuses the city authorities of organizing the blast and connects the incident to his professional activities.

“It was not a car blast, but an attempted murder. They tried to kill me and my colleague”, Mr. Vorotnik said. “My colleague Volodymyr Mamalyha and I hosted a live program in the stadium of the Antena Plus channel. Afterwards we left the office and headed to the car in the parking lot. I came up to the car, followed by Volodymyr and his ten-year-old son who had come to visit his father. I pressed a remote alarm button while I was standing next to the back wheel of the car, there was a powerful blast. I exactly remember the full picture, just the sound of shattering glass, fire, cries… We returned to the office to wait for police. Then we were interrogated. Experts spent some days up to mid February to examine the scene. The car was seized for further examination. They found a 40-cm hole in the pavement under the car”, Valeriy Vorotnik said.

“The Antena Media Group’s managers have criticized illegal actions of the Cherkasy authorities and Mayor Sergiy Odarych in the last three years. Valeriy Vorotnyk and Volodymyr Mamalyha have no doubts the terrorist act was organized by the Cherkasy city authorities”, the Antena Media Group says in a statement on its website.

Valeriy Vorotnyk says the incident is connected to his professional activities. He says police has already instituted criminal proceedings under Article ‘deliberate destruction of property’. The founder of the Cherkasy-based Antena Media Group suspects the city authorities of ordering to kill him.

“We have no other enemies in Cherkasy. We have no business interests, so it doesn’t make sense to attribute the blast to some debts or business conflicts. It happens so that it is Antena – both the newspaper and the channel – of all Cherkasy-based media that has a really tough confrontation with the city authorities. We are in opposition, criticizing them, we are constantly involved in litigations”, he said.

Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship - 2

11.02.2009 The Committee for legislative provision of law-enforcement activities held hearings on ineffective investigation into the fact of impeding journalist Aliona Kochkina to practice journalistic profession. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleksandr Medvedko was invited to take part in the hearings. Member of Parliament Andriy Kozhemyakin is to report on the case.

Criminal case No67-1709 was instituted back on July 1, 2006 on the fact of violation of personal privacy (Article 182 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). 

On May 13, 2006, in Donetsk, unknown persons organized video surveillance filming activities of journalist Aliona Kochkina and a cameraman of the Express-Inform channel who were an editorial task. But the investigation failed to identify the unknown persons, nor to properly conduct required examinations. The case was closed on January 20, 2009, the official reason – lack of component elements of crime. On May 30, 2007, unknown persons broke a window in Ms. Kochkina’s apartment (located on the seventh floor of a 12-storey building).

Aliona Kochkina says the investigation has been deliberately impeded, calling official replies of the law-enforcement bodies ‘window dressing in writing’. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine is to answer the journalist’s questions at the meeting of the Committee for legislative provision of law-enforcement activities. 

17.02.2009 Miska Varta (City Guard) accuses the Kharkiv-based TV channels ATVK and Fora of using censorship. The journalist team of the Miska Varta program has sent a letter to the head of the Kharkiv oblast state administration Arsen Arakov saying the managers of the TV channels ATVK and Fora have unilaterally terminated an agreement with them.

The journalists ask the oblast governor to take actions to prevent censorship on the local channels which refused to broadcast the programs by Miska Varta. They are convinced the agreement was terminated due to the current conflict around the construction market of Kharkiv. 

As he commented on the situation, Director General of the ATVK channel Vasyl Tretetsky denied all the censorship allegations: “We have never unilaterally broken any agreement because there is no agreement between us. We are not parties within the agreement. The parties are Favorit-Media, or the publishing house Premier as of now (which places programs on ATVK), and Miska Varta. The problem is Miska Varta owes it 43 thousand hryvnias. They were warned about their debt, but when they failed to pay, the agreement was terminated. I agreed with such decision of Favorit-Media because 43 thousand is quite an amount for the TV channel”. Mr. Tretetsky says in this situation Miska Varta should go not to the prime minister, prosecutor or governor, but to court. 

The TV channel Fora is not broadcasting Miska Varta either now, said Fora Director General Viktro Postolny. “We broadcast their program, but they didn’t pay for it for two months. And it has nothing to do with censorship”, the Fora Director General said.

Miska Varta is being currently broadcast twice a week by the oblast TV channel OTB. OTB Director General Zurab Alasaniya says the channel and Miska Varta have no financial problems.  
 
New data on impediment to practice journalistic profession - 1

12.02.2009 The Independent Media Union urged Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleksandr Medvedko to react to the lack of action of the Pechersk district prosecutor (Kyiv) in the case of three journalists, who were beaten on October 2, 2008 while on duty at the Recording House, Pervomaiska Street, Kyiv during public rallies protesting against allegedly illegal construction works.

Chair of the Committee of the Kyiv outlet of the Independent Media Union Yuri Lukanov and lawyer Andriy Nechyporenko filed an appeal to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Earlier, the Head Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Kyiv informed the Media Union that the materials of the official investigation into inadequate reaction of police officers of the Pechersk police department (Kyiv) had been passed to the Pechersk prosecutor (Kyiv).

“Neither Pechersk prosecutor, nor other prosecutors have provided us with any information on the results of the inspection of the materials of the investigation into the actions of the police officers. The prosecutors have also failed to legally assess the fact that the journalists, who were on duty collecting information at the scene, were subject to some illegal actions. It is nothing but the lack of action”, said Yuri Lukanov in his complaint. The chair of the Kyiv Independent Media Union urges the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to personally control the investigation.

On October 13, 2008, the Media Union filed an appeal to the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine urging the law-enforcement authorities to institute criminal proceedings against persons that had impeded the journalists to practice their profession and against the police officers who had failed to stop the conflict thus breaking the law.

On October 2, 2008, photo journalists Oleksandr Techunsky and Volodymyr Hontar were beaten at the Recording House, Kyiv, during the rallies protesting against illegal construction works. Unknown persons took journalist Igor Lutsenko’s camera and damaged it. The journalists say a group of police officers watched the incident without interfering. The letter sent by the Pechersk district police department (Kyiv) to the Media Union, two criminal cases have been initiated against persons that impeded the journalists to practice their profession and damaged their equipment.

Economic, political, indirect pressure - 8

6.02.2009 “A critical situation”, said Director General of the Mediadim Holding Company (the newspaper Gazeta 24 and online portal 24.ua) Viktor Tymchenko as he commented on the situation in Gazeta 24. Mr. Tymchenko says the current situation has been caused by the economic recession, but not the actions of the journalistic team or the newspaper management.

“It is to be taken into account that the newspaper has never been self-sustaining, yet receiving rather sporadic and insufficient support of the owners”, said Viktor Tymchenko.

The management is currently deciding on various options to resolve the situation. The final decision on the future of the edition is to be taken today.

Unofficial sources provide contradicting facts. The newspaper plans to fire employees, the editor-in-chief has asked people not to come to work as there are no funds to print the newspaper. The newspaper is about to be closed down.

10.02.2009 Today’s issue of the print daily Gazeta 24 was not published. The owners of the edition however say the online version – portal 24.ua – will continue operating. The newspaper employs over 100 journalists, while only 15 persons are left to work on the online portal.

Representatives of the media holding company say the newspaper will not be published for a while, but it is planned to publish it in future. “Due to the change of the format, the print version of Gazeta 24 daily will not be published for a while. We have to improve our position in the media market, which requires thorough rebranding of the edition”, said Ludmyla Yaroshenko, a spokeswoman for the primary shareholder of the MediaDim Holding Company Volodymyr Kosterin. She says it will take a month to change the newspaper format.

Experts however do not expect the newspaper to be published again any time soon.

11.02.2009 The News Media Ukraine publishing house has fired a number of employees of the newspaper Zhisn to optimizing the payroll. News Media Ukraine Director General and Zhizn Editor-in-Chief Timur Marder has confirmed the information on the reduction, but he said that the number of the fired employees was rather low. “Yes, we are currently working on optimizing the expenses. I have taken decision to fire people, but not to reduce salaries… We didn’t have problems with [fired] people, we explained the situation to them. I think when we survive the crisis, we will have them back, at least we will do our best to do so”, the editor-in-chief said.

Timur Marder said the newspaper management considered other options and anti-crisis scenarios. “We are not going to change the periodicity. We are considering changing the number of pages. The weekly will retain its 32 pages still. But we haven’t taken decision on the daily yet”, the editor-in-chief said.
 
12.02.2009
The KP Media publishing house has offered its journalists to resign and to continue working as freelancers, which means the company won’t have to pay dues to social and pension funds reducing its expenses in this way.

Journalists were promised the same salaries while they would receive their social benefits after the crisis.

The KP Media publishing house has reduced one third of its employees. Another part of the staff has been registered as private proprietors.

20.02.2009 The weekly Komentari will be published with the reduced number of pages as part of the anti-crisis measures taken by the Evolution Media Holding Company (allegedly connected to Vitaliy Haiduk) alongside firing a number of journalists and reducing salaries of its employees.

Komentari Editor-in-Chief Vadym Denysenko denies any ‘anti-crisis’ measures being taken to save the edition though. “Forty pages was just a short experiment. Now we are going to publish 32 pages again”, he said. The weekly had 40 pages from September 2008-January 2009.

Vadym Denysenko denies the information on salaries reduction and says employees are fired only occasionally.

“We are not planning any reduction at the moment. We have had rather well-balanced salaries. I cannot predict anything, but as of now I assure you we are not planning to reduce salaries or fees”, he said.

24.02.2009 Journalists of the Era TV Company are forced to apply for a four-hour workday schedule ‘for family reasons’. Those who refuse to do so can lose their salaries for 2008.

A source says all employees of the TV company filed such applications about two weeks ago. Afterwards the company paid salaries for the last year. At the same time, employees have not received January salaries yet.

24.02.2009 TV journalists from Dnipropetrovsk say they are suffering from pressure put by the local authorities. The team of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast state TV and radio company has filed a complaint to the Committee for freedom of expression and information on ‘unprecedented pressure’ b put by the Dnipropetrovsk oblast state administration on the TV company.

In their letter, the journalists told about the development of the conflict between the TV company and the authorities. Representatives of the TV channel say officials of the oblast state administrations are constantly trying to force them to cover information in a convenient for them way, checking the texts on the phone.

Director of the oblast TV and radio company Viktoria Shilova says the TV channel suffers from the pressure put personally by the oblast state administration head Viktor Bondar. The oblast state administration denies these allegations. Representatives of the authorities say the pressure allegations were made after law-enforcement bodies started checking the use of the budget money by the state TV channel.

The inspection is a logical step, say representatives of the local authorities, as last year the TV company received about 5mln hryvnias from the local budget for development, which is more than in the previous five years.

Viktor Bondar says the local authorities do not interfere with the information policies of the state TV channel. The channel director has never been imposed any principles of providing political parties or non-governmental organizations with air time or paid advertizing of political parties or activists on the state channel.

Representatives of the oblast state administration however say they receive a great number of complaints from the audience about the work of the channel. The channel director, who is also a deputy of the oblast council representing one of the political forces, often appears in the channel’s programs promoting herself and her political force with state money, they say.

25.02.2009 The National TV Company of Ukraine plans to fire journalists. “Vasyl Ilashchuk, the company president, said the TV company would not be adequately funded this year that’s why it is planned to reduce 10% of the company staff”, said member of the committee of the Kyiv Independent Media Union Mykhailyna Skoryk. She says Company Vice President Mykhailo Koblia said the company lacked 1,5mln hryvnias in January 2009.

Representative of the Kyiv Independent Media union in the National TV Company Kateryna Katsan says almost 180 employees are expected to be fired first, 10 of them members of the Media Union. Representatives of the Media Union were invited to the meeting. Ms. Katsan says the legal nature of the reduction is doubtful. The list of the employees to be fired was to be made public on February 22. Instead, Vasyl Ilashchuk said the names of the employees to be fired were considered as inner information to be provided to unions only. However, he did not specify when the company management planned to give it to the unions.

“A number of employees work in the company under civil labor agreements, and they will hardly be influenced by the reduction. When representatives of the Media Union filed an inquiry to the President of the National TV Company of Ukraine about ESGroup staff (a production company producing content for the National TV Company and other TV channels) and why after January 17 the company hired 10 new people, we never received any answer”, says Kateryna Katsan.

The next round of the talks to be attended by representatives of all departments of the National TV Company of Ukraine is scheduled for March 4.

New data on economic, political and indirect pressure - 1

27.02.2009 At a meeting, a new director general of Gazeta 24 was introduced to the edition’s team, who was also informed about the forthcoming reduction.

The official reduction notice said employees will be fired beginning May 4 “over the reduction of the number of the staff and employees of the Mediadim Company and elimination of positions”.

The publication of Gazeta 24 was terminated on February 6, acting Director General Viktor Tymchenko fired, and Oleksandr Bovtach appointed a new acting Director General. On February 25, the VOKStream company announced it did not plan to continue funding the project and urged Mr. Tymchenko to return to his duties as acting Director General and initiate the reduction procedure. The ex-director general however turned down this offer though.

The issues of the firing procedure and salaries to be paid to the team remain unsolved so far.


Legal actions against media and journalists – 0

New data on legal actions against media and journalists – 0

Lawsuits filed by media and journalists – 0

New data on lawsuits filed by media and journalists - 0

²Ì²

 

 
< Prev   Next >

Last comment

Criminal liability as a repressive tool, who is to profit by it?
ImageThe 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).
Read more...
 

Debate

At the beginning of June several attempts to restrict the journalists’ rights have been reported
Wednesday, 09 June 2010

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.

Read more...
 

Interview








Íàñòð³é äíÿ

chernob.jpg
IMI