May proved to be the most peaceful and uneventful of the last few months. No cases of journalists beaten, attacked or intimidates were registered. The economic crisis is however in full swing having an impact on the national media sector. More journalists lost their jobs, while the job conditions of others deteriorated significantly, with salaries reduced etc.

New data on killed journalists – 1

22.05.2009 An examination of the Melnychenko tapes, required in the Gongadze case, will cost 500 thousand hryvnias.

The committee for foreign affairs recommends that the Ukrainian parliament adopts a Resolution on measures to be taken to ensure execution of Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe No1645 (2009) ‘Investigation of crimes allegedly committed by high officials during the Kuchma rule in Ukraine: the Gongadze case as an emblematic example’.

In the Resolution, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine urges the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine to promptly take measures to ensure execution of PACE Resolution ‘Investigation of crimes allegedly committed by high officials during the Kuchma rule in Ukraine: the Gongadze case as an emblematic example’. Under the Resolution, 500 thousand hryvnias of state funds to be allotted for the examination of the Melnychenko recordings by foreign experts in the Gongadze case and other high-profile cases mentioned in PACE Resolution No1645(2009), including funding official visits abroad for Prosecutor’s General Office officials.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers also proposes to fund costs of foreign examinations and investigatory actions in the said cases.

Journalists arrested, detained – 0

New data on journalists arrested, detained - 0

 
Journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated – 0

New data on journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated - 0

Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship - 1

25.05.2009 In Vinnytsia, first deputy chief of the local municipal housing office Vyacheslav Shapoval attacked Oleksandr Ilnytsky, a journalist of the Vinnychyna TV channel.

Mr. Ilnytsky tried to shoot an argument between Mr. Shapoval and a circus administrator. The latter accused the city officials of demanding 8 thousand as a bribe (the currency was not specified). When he saw he was being shot, Mr. Shapoval attacked Oleksandr Ilnytsky. As he arrived at a hospital, doctors registered the injuries of the soft tissues of his head.

New data on impediment to practice journalistic profession - 0

Economic, political, indirect pressure - 6

05.05.2009 Employees of the Kyiv Media Holding have not been paid for four months now.

The Kyiv Independent Media Workers’ Union express concern about several months of salary debts of the Kyiv Media Holding (newspapers Khreshchatyk, Vechirniy Kyiv and Kyiv TV channel) and the Halytski Kontrakty publishing house (Kontrakty business edition). Head of the committee of the Kyiv Independent Media Workers’ Union Yuri Lukanov has sent an inquiry to Kyiv mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, Kyiv Council Secretary Oles Donhyi and Kyiv Media Holding management. He has also sent an official letter to Halytski Kontrakty Director General Sergiy Ivanov-Maliavin. Mr. Lukanov asks in his letter for the causes of the salary debt and to specify the date when employees of the Kyiv Media Holding and Halytski Kontrakty are to receive their salaries.

The Kyiv Media Holding has not paid salaries for four months, Halytski Kontrakty publishing house for three months. The management of both companies has not informed the employees about the reasons yet.

08.05.2009 Following the change of the program format, TET TV channel plans to sack 30% of the employees engaged in production (about 40 persons). It has been decided that only one of two hosts of the Dyvys! (Look!) program – Martina Lukyanchenko and Yaroslav Hurevych – will retain their job. The channel has chosen Martina Lukyanchenko who is also involved in the project as a journalist.

The format of other original projects of the TV channel – daily program Semero VJ (Seven VJs) and Dyvys, khto pryishov! (Look who’s come!) – will not be changed.

14.05.2009 Music Radio brand and format will be liquidated in May, Music Radio program director Dmytro Turchyn has reported in his Music Radio blog. The radio station will be closed down “due to the change of the owner and the program part of the broadcast to be reorganized”, he said.

Mr. Turchynov also said Anatoliy Yevtukhov’s company (Shanson, Sharmanka, Renesans, Continent, DJ-FM, and Business-Radio) is Music Radio’s new owner. Earlier, Music Radio was a part of the radio group of the Ukrainian Media Holding. The radio group’s Director General Borys Motulko has declined comment on the destiny of Music Radio. 

14.05.2009 The advertising and information edition Bazar will not be published beginning May. According to Director General of the Autocenter publishing house (the publisher of the newspaper) Sergiy Ataman, the option of closing down the project is not considered yet. It is planned though to reformat the edition to meet “new demands of the market”, he said.

Mr. Ataman says Bazar will not be published in the next two months. The publisher plans to change the concept and business model of the edition, though Mr. Ataman does not specify in what way. He says the project is to be adapted to meet new ‘crisis’ terms of the market.

The Ukrainian-language private advertising edition Bazar was a bi-weekly colored A3 newspaper. 95% of the circulation (91 thousand copies) was distributed in Kyiv and Kyiv oblast. The newspaper had four sections – Real Estate and Construction, Rent, Automoto, Goods and Services. Work and School.

22.05.2009 The newspaper Kommersant-Ukraina will switch to a four-day working week for the three summer months. The newspaper employees should also expect a 20% salary cut, reports a source in the newspaper.

Editor-in-Chief and Director General of Kommersant-Ukraina Andriy Gogolev says the changes might take place though a final decision has not been taken yet. “There is no order on the changes in the working schedule or payroll yet. It might be signed in June. We are considering different ways of cost optimization during the summer months. Obviously, the incomes will be much lower in summer. We have discussed this issue with the editorial staff”, Andriy Gogolev said.

In March, Editor-in-Chief and Director General of Kommersant-Ukraina Andriy Gogolev said that 10% of the employees of the Ukrainian edition had been fired since the beginning of the year.

26.05.2009 Journalists of the RBC-Ukraine Information Agency have a four-day working week now. This information has been confirmed by the agency’s editor-in-chief Danylo Kiryakov who said the working schedule reduction varied for different employees. “Some work three days a week, others four or five as before”, he said. Mr. Kiryakov says it was decided to reduce the number of working days with the purpose of optimization.

Journalists with the reduced number of working days will face a pay-cut as well. Mr. Kiryakov declined comment on this information and did not specify the amount of the pay-cut. He said no other optimization measures are to be expected in the nearest future. Instead, the agency may resume its normal working schedule in summer.

One of the shareholders of the RBC-Ukraine Information Agency is Russia-based RBC Holding Company, which initiated optimization procedures in last autumn.

New data on economic, political and indirect pressure - 4

5.05.2009 The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) criticizes Ukraine-based Ukrainsky Tyzhden for sacking its journalist Sergiy Hooz over his trade union activities, EFJ says in a statement published on its website. A similar statement has been published by the Independent Media Workers’ Union of Ukraine, where Sergiy Hooz is Vice-President.

Sergiy Hooz, a journalist of the Economy column of the magazine Ukrainsky Tyzhden, head of the editorial trade union chapel, was told he was sacked after he initiated talks with the magazine management to solve the payment and journalists’ rights issues, EFJ reports.

The president of the European Federation of Journalists said Ukrainsky Tyzhden management has to reinstate Sergiy Hooz and ensure effective negotiations with the magazine team on the rights of journalists and their working conditions.

According to official representatives of the magazine, the sacking of Sergiy Hooz is not connected to his activities as a trade union leader.

07.05.2009 A trade union commission was not allowed to the office of the Ukrainsky Tyzhden magazine.

When the union commission tried to enter the office of Ukrainsky Tyzhden to meet the magazine management to discuss the current state of the negotiations of the magazine team and the sacking of journalist Sergiy Hooz, the Ukrainsky Tyzhden management refused to talk to the commission members and let them into the office.

Ukrainsky Tyzhden Director A.M. Reshetnik said some of the top-managers were not in the office, while others were not available to meet with the members of the union commission as they were involved in the preparation of another issue of the magazine. When asked to provide records of the collective negotiations and to delegate a representative of the magazine to discuss the pending issues, Mr. Reshetnik refused to do so. He asked the members of the commission to leave the company office and called security guards.

The trade union commission filed a report on the incident. When a representative of the employer refused to sign the report, it was signed by two employees of the magazine.

The Independent Media Workers’ Union of Ukraine formed a commission on May 5, 2009, led by Oleksandr Zinchenko, to investigate the situation in Ukrainsky Tyzhden.

14.05.2009  Ukrainsky Tyzhden’s journalists report their personal data were collected with the help of the servemp.exe software, which transferred the information on journalists to the master server of the edition. They consider it as a threat to their privacy (due to irregular working hours, they have to solve their personal problems online in the office) and secrecy of their information sources. Journalists say the spy software was installed on 24 of the office computers without prior notification of the personnel.

The incident was reported by President of the Independent Media Workers’ Union of Ukraine Roman Skrypin, journalists of Ukrainsky Tyzhden Sergiy Hooz (Vice President of the Independent Media Workers’ Union), Anna Babinets and former employee of the edition Anatoliy Bondarenko.

20.05.2009 The commission for journalism ethics formed a working group to check the facts stated in the complaint filed by employees of the Kyiv Media Holding requesting to assess actions of the online edition Ukrainska Pravda, allegedly involved in a political provocation against Kyiv mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, Commission Secretary Olga Kanska told journalists.

Ms. Kanska says the working group is comprised of Valeriy Ivanov, Chair of the Advertising and PR Department of the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, Taras Kuzmov, media consultant/regional representative of the Thomson Foundation (UK), journalist Sergiy Rakhmanin, and President of the Ukrainian Association of Media Lawyers Tetiana Kotiuzhinska.

According to Olga Kanska, the working group is to hold its first meeting next week to consider preliminary results of investigation based on the complaint of journalists of the Kyiv Media Holding.

Legal actions against mass media and journalists - 3

26.05.2009 Yuri Svirko won the lawsuit against publishers of the newspaper Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya.

On May 26, Natalia Buzhak, Deputy Chair of the Shevchenko district court, Kyiv, ruled to reinstate Yuri Svirko, the former acting editor-in-chief of Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya. She also ordered the publishers to pay the 13 months worth of salaries – it took Mr. Svirko 13 months to get reinstated. The plaintiff is also to receive moral damages reparation of 2 thousand hryvnias, instead of 1 mln. hryvnias he demanded in the lawsuit.

Ekonomicheskiye Izvestiya’s acting editor-in-chief Yuri Svirko was sacked on April 7, 2008. On April 23, he filed a lawsuit to the Shevchenko district court of Kyiv. The trial lasted 13 months.

New data on legal actions against mass media and journalists - 2

12.05.2009 The Head Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk oblast asks the State committee for television and radio to dismiss Viktoria Shilova, Director of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast state TV and radio company, for a period of official investigation into the fact of theft of the property of the television company, Hennadiy Rudenko, senior investigator, says in a letter to the State commission for television and radio.

The investigative department of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine has instituted criminal proceedings under Article 190, part 4 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, based on the fact of the grand larceny of the property of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast state television and radio company. The criminal proceedings were instituted upon a pre-investigation check initiated by Viktor Bondar, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast state administration. In 2008, the Dnipropetrovsk oblast state television and radio company signed an agreement with Garant-Service private company to buy radio, television and connection equipment with the state funds. According to the Dnipropetrovsk department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, Garant-Service failed to fulfill its obligations under the agreement and to deliver the equipment.

Mr. Rudenko insists that Viktoria Shilova negatively commented in a program of the oblast TV company on the criminal proceedings instituted, thus breaking secrecy of investigation and violating confidentiality of the information in the criminal case. “I ask you to adequately assess the actions of Director General of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast state television and radio company V.V. Shilova”, Hennadiy Rudenko says in his letter, based on which the Head Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk oblast asks to dismiss Ms. Shilova for the period of investigation.

Oleksandr Kurdinovich, Deputy Head of the State committee for television and radio, says the committee is to take decision next week. “We haven’t received all materials yet to take decision. Apart from this letter, we have no other records of the situation. We are currently drawing up official inquiries to the Interior Ministry of Ukraine and the Control and Revision Department”.

13.05.2009 The Pechersk district court of Kyiv dismissed a lawsuit, filed by the former anchormen of 1+1 channel Anna Bezulyk, Ludmyla Dobrovolska, and Oles Tereshchenko. The plaintiffs filed a protest against their sacking. The judgment was issued by Judge Olena Kafidlova. The third parties in the case are the Kyiv Independent Media Workers’ Union and National Council for television and radio, Telekritika reports.

The former employees of the Studio 1+1 Oles Tereshchenko, Anna Bezulyk, and Ludmyla Dobrovolska filed a lawsuit to the Pechersk district court against the TV channel in December 2008. They protested against the order to sack them, signed by the channel’s Director General Oleksandr Tkachenko. They insisted that the change in editorial policy of the channel constituted the change in their working conditions, which subsequently provided them with a different reason for leaving the channel. On November 18, Tereshchenko, Bezulyk, and Dobrovolska signed resignations over the change in working conditions, which however were not signed. Later, Oleksandr Tkachenko told the newspaper Fakty I Kommentarii that he had tried to involve the TV presenters in new projects. They however were not satisfied with the proposed payment. Dobrovolska and Bezulyk deny it. The TV presenters were sacked together with a number (from tens to over 200 persons according to different sources) employees of 1+1 early in 2009.

  
New data on legal actions against mass media and journalists - 0

ІМІ