In June, a series of events took place in Ukraine which are to be mentioned in this issue of the Press Freedom Barometer. They are mainly legal actions against mass media or initiated by mass media. We also registered a number of cases of journalists impeded to practice their profession. One of the key witnesses in the Gongadze case – General Eduard Fere – died, which is especially aggravating in the light of the investigation failing to find the masterminds behind the murder of the journalist.

01.06.2009 General Eduard Fere died after a long-term coma.

Fere remained in a coma for six years, staying all this time in the Interior Ministry of Ukraine hospital.

From 1995-2000, Eduard Fere acted as chief-of –staff for President Leonid Kuchma’s interior minister Yuri Kravchenko.

Yuri Kravchenko resigned as the investigation into the Gongadze case was in full swing, and Fere became an advisor at the State Affairs Administration, then headed by the late Yuri Dagayev, once a top-ranking police official and supporter of Yuri Kravchenko.

Eduard Fere was considered to be one of the key witnesses in the Gongadze case. The Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine filed a number of summons to question him, which was however impossible due to the long-term coma.

Fere is believed to have been a close associate of one of Gongadze’s presumed murderers, former interior ministry intelligence chief Gen. Oleksiy Pukach.

Fere will be buried at the Berkovtsi cemetery.

03.06.2009 Reporters Without Borders, a non-governmental organization which fights for press freedom and denounces violation of human rights across the world, deplores the lack of the political will to solve the murder of Ukrainian investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

“We deplore the lack of political will to solve this murder that has so far been displayed by the Ukrainian authorities”, says Reporters Without Borders in a statement on the website of the organization following the death of Gen. Eduard Fere, a key witness in the Gongadze case.

“Gen. Fere’s death is a serious blow for the investigation into the Gongadze murder but the judicial authorities have other ways to establish the truth,” Reporters Without Borders said.

On Tuesday, Eduard Fere, a key witness in the Gongadze case, died after a six-year coma.

From 1995-2000, Eduard Fere was a chief-of-staff of ex-President Leonid Kuchma’s interior minister Yuri Kravchenko.

After Kravchenko’s resignation, Gen. Fere joined as an advisor the State Affairs Administration, headed by the late Yuri Dagayev, the former top-ranking police official and close associate of Yuri Kravchenko.

 
Eduard Fere was one of the key witnesses in the Gongadze case. The Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine attempted to question him a number of times, which was however impossible due to the coma.

Gen. Fere is believed to have been a close associate of Oleksiy Pukach, the chief of the police intelligence department, accused of murdering journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

04.06.2009 The masterminds of the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze will never be found since nobody wants it, says the killed journalist’s mother Lesya Gongadze.

In her interview with Deutsche Well, Mrs. Gongadze said nobody wants the investigation into her son’s murder to be completed today. Authorities prefer to stall the case and use it to their benefit before the presidential election. “No high-profile cases have been solved and will ever be. It’s just that somebody prefers to stall it now to ensure a positive media coverage for themselves”, said Mrs. Gongadze.

When asked to comment on the death of Gen. Fere, Lesya Gongadze does not consider it to be a serious blow to the investigation as the person, who remained in a coma for such a long period of time, could not have been a witness in the criminal case anyway. At the same time, Lesya Gongadze warns Ukrainian politicians not to abuse the name of her son on the eve of the presidential election.

Three former police officers, who committed the murder, have already been convicted, while no masterminds behind the crime have been found yet. 

12.06.2009 The Donetsk appellate administrative court cancelled the decision of the Donetsk oblast qualification-disciplinary law committee withdrawing the law license of Sergiy Osyka, lawyer of the former Police Gen. Oleksiy Pukach, suspected of murdering journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

With its decision as of November 14, 2007, the Donetsk oblast qualification-disciplinary law committee cancelled the license of Sergiy Osyka to practice law. According to the decisions, the abovementioned sanction was used against the lawyer after Mr. Osyka, during a court session hearing an appeal against the judgment of the district court in a civil case on the lawsuit he had filed to defend his honor and dignity, proposed a disqualification of the judges, claiming that the presiding justice had received a bribe from the defendant. Mr. Osyka also said he had been informed on a judgment, which had allegedly been issued in advance, called the actions of the judges “circus” and judges themselves “barrators”.

The qualification-disciplinary law committee found such statements of the lawyer offensive for the court and breaking the Law of Ukraine on Law Practice and the Legal Ethics Rules, based on which it was decided to withdraw Mr. Osyka’s professional license.

The lawyer challenged this decision in court, asking to cancel it and consider the actions of the qualification-disciplinary law committee as illegal.

Mr. Osyka said that on August 5, 2008, the Donetsk appellate administrative court issued a verdict in the case which has lasted over a year. The court found the decision of the Donetsk oblast qualification-disciplinary committee withdrawing Mr. Osyka’s law license as illegal.

According to the ruling, having decided to cancel the license of   the lawyer, the qualification-disciplinary law committee did not take into account the fact that during the court session Mr. Osyka proposed disqualification of the judges and aired his concern about the actions of certain judges as a litigant, but not as a defender.  According to the court, proposing the disqualification of the court, Mr. Osyka exercised his procedural rules, not his professional obligations as a lawyer.
Mr. Osyka says, the court stated in its ruling of August 5, 2008, that the oblast qualification-disciplinary law committee was not authorized to interfere with professional activities of a lawyer.

This decision, in his opinion, can become a revolutionary precedent in future relations of lawyers with regional disciplinary law committees.

When asked about hit plans, Mr. Osyka said he had resumed his professional activities and did not intend to seek moral or material damage, caused by the illegal decisions of the Donetsk oblast qualification-disciplinary law committee, which had prevented him from law practice for a lengthy period of time. Regardless of the said situation, Mr. Osyka thinks highly of members of the qualification-disciplinary committee, he said.

Journalists arrested, detained – 0

New data on journalists arrested, detained - 0

Journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated - 1

05.06.2009 Management of the TV company Kruk urges law-enforcement agencies to provide security of journalist Dmytro Bakayev. A request to ensure security of the journalist, who works for the TV company, has been filed with the Security Service of Ukraine, prosecutor’s office and the Odessa police department. The company says the journalist has been threatened “for criticizing leaders of the Rodina party, specifically its leader Igor Markov, the former deputy of the Odessa city council”.

According to the company, the journalist received the first call with threats to “duly” punish him for making public information about activities of Rodina and Mr. Markov after the program ‘Those who sow the wind…’, produced by Krug’s observer Dmytro Bakayev.

The journalist’s friends warned him in a private conversation about a possible attack too. Krug’s management took decision not to ignore the threats and to publicly address the local law-enforcement agencies urging them to “provide personal security of the TV company’s employee Dmytro Bakayev”.

Sources in the company say, in his analytical program “Those who sow the wind…” Dmytro Bakayev speaks about the current situation in informal circles of young people of Odessa, in particular dangerous actions of political manipulators, who are trying to use lack of experience and maximalism of the local youth to achieve their goals. Such activities have already resulted in the murder of a 21-year old student of Odessa National Mechnikov University, active member of the organization Sich Maksim Chayka, and injuries of his friend Andriy Dzeban.

Police has not found a person who is suspected of committing the murder, Deputy Police Chief of Odessa oblast Dmytro Fuchedji told journalists on June 4.

New data on journalists beaten, attacked, intimidated - 1

05.06.2009 K., who has broken Kommersant journalist Oleksandr Techynsky’s arm is being currently pursued by police, said chief of the investigative department of the Pechersk police of Kyiv S. Reva in his letter to the Kyiv Independent Media Union, spokespeople for the Union report. Earlier, the Kyiv Independent Media Union has urged Kyiv law-enforcement agencies to institute criminal proceedings on the face of impediment to practice journalistic profession.

On October 2, 2008, at the Recording House (Leonid Pervomayski Str., Kyiv), photo-correspondents Oleksandr Techynsky and Volodymyr Hontar were attacked during protests against illegal construction works in the district. As a result, Mr. Techynsky’s arm was broken. Journalist Igor Lutsenko’s camera was confiscated and then returned damaged. The journalists were attacked by security guards who provided security of the construction site. The journalists say the police were present at the site, watching the attack without even trying to prevent it.

The Media Union reports in his letter to the Union S. Reva says it has been established  that K. “violated the order and using a wooden stick, which had obviously prepared beforehand to inflict bodily injuries, attacked Oleksandr Techynsky and left the scene. K. has been announced as wanted by police”.

In his letter, Mr. Reva says, criminal proceedings on the fact of impediment to practice journalistic profession will be instituted when K. is detained and questioned about the attack, which took place on October 2, 2008.

The Kyiv Independent Media Union considers the attack not as an act of hooliganism, but as an attempt to impede the practice of journalistic profession. K. hit the journalist’s arm when the latter was taking shots of the protests against the illegal construction works. In this way, he prevented adequate coverage of this event.

Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship - 4

16.06.2009 Olena Zaporozhan, a news editor of the Poltava-based newspaper Kolo, filed a request with the Poltava oblast police department to investigation the case of violation of her professional rights. In her request, she mentions impediment to practice journalistic profession (Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) by the director and security guards of the Poltava central market. 

On June 9, 2009, Kolo’s journalists, TV channel Ltava’s camera crew and representatives of other local mass media were collecting information on the premises of the Poltava central market. Olena Zaporozhan says the journalists tried to check information on the new management of the market allegedly rising rent, now collected by unknown persons with guns. When the journalists entered the market, they were not allowed to talk to people selling their goods their. Instead, they were invited to the director’s office.

The director demanded that they destroy the photos and leave the territory of the market. When the journalists refused to do so, they were not allowed to leave for an hour. “Only after a call to the helpline of the Poltava oblast police, when operative groups arrived to save the journalists, the latter were thrown out from the market with threats to destroy the cameras next time they arrived at the territory of the market”, Olena Zaporozhan writes in her article “Journalists taken prisoner by market guards”.

Ms. Zaporozhan says Ltava’s camera crew were hurt too. One of the security guards used force to take their camera. After talks with the market director, the journalists received their camera back.

Police calls this situation unacceptable. The Poltava oblast police is currently checking the fact of impediment to practice journalistic profession and holding the journalists in the director’s office by force. “[Investigation into] any offenses against journalists are always personally controlled by the minister”, said chief spokesperson for the Poltava oblast police Yuri Sulayev. “An inquiry has been launched into the fact of holding the journalists in the office by force and impediment to practice journalistic profession. The inquiry is supervised by Mykhailo Tsymbaliuk. We are also going to check if there were any guns, if they were certified to use them, and whether it was necessary to demonstrate them”.

However, Olena Zaporozhan is not convinced the inquiry will have any effect. “Police seems to be willing to close the case trying to avoid too much attention”, she told Telekritika. “The matter is several days later [after the incident] I was called and asked whether I had any problems with the director of the market and whether I could consider them as resolved. I don’t understand either why the Security Service of Ukraine or the prosecutor have not reacted to my article”, she said.

24.06.2009 Tear-gas was used against a cameraman of the Zakryta Zona (Closed Zone) camera crew by the security guards of the Kyiv Pharmacy Company.

When Zakryta Zona’s journalist Olena Bondarenko tried to shoot footage near the Kyiv Pharmacy office, she was approached by a security guard, who told her she could not shoot anything there. Ms. Bondarenko told him he was actually impeding her to practice journalistic profession. Later, another person approached the camera crew and used tear-gas the cameraman.

At the moment, the journalist, the cameraman and the person who used tear-gas are being questioned by police.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted under the Hooliganism article, but the journalists demand that the case is qualified as “impediment to practice journalistic profession”, Olena Bondarenko told IMI.

24.06.2009 A representative of the Passenger River Agency damaged the camera of STB’s camera crew, reports STB’s journalist Oleksandr Mitina.

On June 23, Ms. Mitina and cameraman Oleksandr Kubrytsky were shooting Ai-Petri ship from the bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv. Ten days before that a young man fell off the ship and drowned in the river. 

The journalist says a woman, probably an employee of the Passenger River Agency, approached the camera crew. Without introducing herself, she demanded that the cameraman switch off the camera and then damaged a camera microphone.

The journalists demanded that the woman returned the microphone, but she escaped into the office of the Passenger River Agency.

The journalist and cameraman spent several minutes trying to enter the office of the Passenger River Agency. After 15 minutes, the camera crew had to call police, after which an unknown representative of the river agency came out of the office and returned the microphone.

The journalists took decision to wait for police since under the law of Ukraine, impediment to practice journalistic profession is considered as a crime.

“Police arrived an hour later. There were four police officers. They told us to turn off the camera at once threatening to otherwise confiscate it”, Ms. Mitina said.

The police officers registered the evidence and questioned representatives of the river agency in the office. The journalists were not present during the questioning.

The journalist says the police does not qualify the incident as a criminal offense.

Ms. Mitina says one of the police officers said that grabbing the camera from the journalist’s hands was not a crime.

Volodymyr Polishchuk, chief spokesperson of the Kyiv police, has told the journalist that persons that take possessions of citizens of Ukraine at the cost of 907 hryvnias are not to be held legally accountable for that.

He said it was the prosecutor who would have to decide whether impediment to practice journalistic profession had taken place.

26.06.2009 Valentyn Perepichka, chief physician of the Bukovyna Medical Social Examination Center, did not allow journalists of the Chernivtsi TV channel to shoot footage at the center, Chernivtsi’s Director Hennadiy Sergeyev told IMI.

As the journalists started asking him questions, the chief physician denied comment, pushed the camera away and told the journalists they could not shoot footage at the center.

The local authorities have already reacted to the incident. Volodymyr Kulish, Head of the oblast state administration, says such actions of the head of the communal establishment are unacceptable. He has also ordered to check the facts, published by the journalists, and in the event they are true, to initiate firing the chief physician. The head of the healthcare department has been ordered to inform the public on the results of the inspection and to take steps to improve performance of the center.

“We want the local authorities to adequately react and to prevent such actions in future. We, journalists, work for people, and so do they – doctors and state officials, and are paid by taxpayers. At the moment, we are waiting for apologies and an adequate reaction of the authorities”, Chernivtsi’s Director General Hennadiy Sergeyev told IMI.

The director general of the Chernivtsi TV channel refuses to name the journalist and the cameraman involved in the incident until an official reaction of the local authorities is made public.

New data on impediment to practice journalistic profession - 0

Economic, political, indirect pressure - 8

01.06.2009 Anton Stepyuk, editor of the Exclamation Mark program of the TVi channel, was fired, Telekritika reports.

Mr. Stepyuk found out about it in early May from Artem Shevchenko, Exclamation Mark project director.

“I understand the reasons. Artem Shevchenko wants to see another person in this position, who he would be more comfortable to work with”, Mr. Stepyuk said. He said he had not been duly notified on the firing, two weeks in advance in the least. “It is such disrespect. Unfortunately, they do it to all people whose services they don’t need any more”, he told Telekritika. “But I have to say such decisions have not been appreciated by the top-management. It is the top management we have to thank for making the procedure more civilized”, Mr. Stepyuk said.

“We have analyzed Anton’s work and taken decision we don’t need his services any more. It was my and deputy editor Vakhtang Kipiani’s decision. We were not satisfied with his working standards”, commented Artem Shevchenko, Exclamation Mark project director.

He says the vacancy of a project editor has not been taken yet. The project director has been personally responsible for editing since firing Anton. A new editor of Exclamation Mark program is to be appointed by the end of the week.

Anton Stepyuk worked for the STB TV channel in autumn, 2008. He is currently busy promoting his own projects, sending proposals to Ukrainian TV channels. Anton says he does not see himself as an investigative journalist any more. He is going to try his hand in a different media sphere.

03.06.2009 Olga Olenych, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kremin (Kremenchuk, Poltava oblast), stopped hunger strike she had started on May 27 protesting against unsatisfactory conditions of keeping prisoners in penal colony No69. Ms. Olenych had to do that over problems with her health.

She says she felt bad and had to call ambulance. The ambulance crew registered severe health problems, including high blood pressure.

Olga Olenych had gone on hunger strike to protest against poor execution of decisions of the Parliamentary committee for combating corruption, which concerned the living conditions in penal colony No69.

“I reported [on the living conditions] at a meeting of the committee. MPs passed decision to launch an inquiry to check the facts of unsatisfactory living conditions, tortures used against prisoners and other criminal offenses. And now all we receive is notes from all kinds of establishments. MPs have never arrived [at the colony]. I’m going to continue my hunger strike until my demands are met”, Ms. Olenych said.

She demands to stop torturing prisoners at the colony, fire the oblast prosecutor, the colony governor and some other officials.

04.06.2009 TONIS TV channel plans to close down two projects – Society Column (Svitski Hroniky) and Bus 24 (Reis 24) – and to fire six news journalists, says Dmytro Tuzov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the channel.

“We are temporarily closing down the Society Column program, at least until its full revisal. We are also closing the Bus 24 project”, Mr. Tuzov said. The Society Column team is not going to be fired, he said. Instead, they are supposed to come up with a new concept of the program. The destiny of the Bus 24 team is not clear yet.

“Six out of 12 news journalists remain with us”, said Dmytro Tuzov. The Chair of the TONIS’ Board of Directors expects more changes to take place in the company: “There will be more changes in future, connected with the program product and naturally production. But that’s all for now”.

Earlier, Mr. Tuzov informed some journalists would be fired and a number of TONIS’ own projects closed down.

“It is most reasonable to do that in summer. A part of our projects will probably be closed. We are going to take the final decision in the nearest future. We will know then who will stay in the company and will be involved in our production”, Mr. Tuzov said then.

11.06.2009 Journalist Oleksiy Kutepov, accused of unprofessional performance during a journalistic investigation, which caused the death of Oleksandr Honcharov, filed a resignation with ICTV management.

“I have applied for a four-day vacation without keeping my wages. I was denied it. I was given an alternative: “You either start working with a new topic (stealing in museums) or resign”. I could not work on a different topic for moral and objective reasons. I have to stay in Kyiv all the time due to police questioning. Instead, the management offered me the only way of going on vacation. The last sentence in the application is to be: “… with further resignation”. I had to agree to this compromise though I see no objective reasons for resigning. I have contacted the Association of Media Lawyers, which provided me with quite tangible reasons [to stay in the company]. Today, ICTV has not reasons to fire me, except my “further resignation”, which I have a right to withdraw”, Mr. Kutepov said. He is on vacation till June 23 and is not looking for a new job yet.

He says he hoped to continue the investigation with ICTV after the killing of Honcharov. “I had no idea then that my editors would abandon me, demonstrating such indifference, and I would end up fired. Oleksandr Honcharov was killed for sand, but not because of the journalist, as the police has proved. Back on June 5, the capital’s Police Chief Vitaliy Yarema said the mastermind of the crime had been detained. It means it was a previously planned action. The ICTV management have never told me what my allegedly unprofessional actions have caused the death of this person. I was only told they did not intend to continue our cooperation”, Mr. Kutepov said. Concerned about his professional reputation, he has requested the Journalistic Ethics Commission to analyze and assess his professional actions during the investigation into illegal sand recovery on Zhukov Island.

12.06.2009 A committee of the Kyiv Independent Media Union expresses its concern about President of the National TV Company of Ukraine Vasyl Ilashchuk breaking the Code of Labor Laws. Contrary to Article 252 of the Code, providing guarantees to employees elected to trade unions, Vasyl Ilashchuk has fired Inna Udovenko, a member of the elected representative body of the trade union in the company.

Under Article 252 of the Labor Laws Code of Ukraine, the president of the National TV Company of Ukraine should have received an approval of the trade union prior to firing its member. However, the committee has never received any requests for such approval and has never approved any firing. The committee of the Kyiv Independent Media Union warns Mr. Ilashchuk he will be held administratively and criminally liable for breaking labor legislation.

12.06.2009 Volodymyr Pavliuk lost his job because of the “Propalo vsio!” (It’s all over!) video.

On June 12, Volodymyr Pavliuk, a chief-editor of the news program Reporter, urged by the Novy Channel management, filed a resignation.

“We with the management have different ideas of what happened in the program”, Mr. Pavliuk said. Volodymyr Pavliuk was fired for showing on June 8 the unofficial video of PM Yulia Tymoshenko’s statement, where she said “It’s all over!”, posted on the Internet, in the Reporter program.

“Yes. The video was shown on Monday. I had a long boring talk with the directors. I was asked to resign, and so I did”, Mr. Pavliuk says.

“Volodymyr Pavliuk has lost his common sense”, Olga Balaban, Novy Channel’s chief spokesperson, commented on the resignation of the news chief-editor. Ms. Balaban conforms that the journalist was fired over the “Propalo vsio!” video of Prime Minister Tymoshenko. However, she denies any political pressure put on the channel.

“We cannot use video from the Internet in serious news programs. We don’t actually approve of that in our entertainment programs either. Especially taking into account the fact that there were no informative reasons to do so”, Ms. Balaban commented on the channel’s decision.

When asked about his plans, Volodymyr Pavliuk says he is going to look for a new job. “I was really happy that on my last day there, our share was 19,7%. It’s a record, Reporter has never achieved such a level. I’d call it a farewell gift from my team”, he said.

24.06.2009 The Komizdat publishing company, which publishes magazines Spiel!, PC WorldUkraine, Seti I Telekommukikatsii, Korporativnye Sistemy, CIO, Gurme, and newspaper ComputerWorldUkraine, was closed down. 

Iryna Zhdanenko, former Editor-in-Chief of Seti I Telekommukikatsii and PC WorldUkraine, says Dekabr LLC was the first to close down, taking with it all editions published by Komizdat. Ms. Zhdanenko says Spiel! and Seti I Telekommukikatsii have been acquired by the Networks of Ukraine company, founded by Ms. Zhdanenko and former chief of the Komizdat test laboratory Oleksandr Denysiuk.

These are “profitable projects with strong brands and loyal audience”, Ms. Zhdanenko says specifying that “the value of the agreement was rather high”. According to Ms. Zhdanenko, the publishing company was closed down due to “both global and local crises”. “It is rather hard for a big publishing company to survive the crisis, specifically due to huge expenses on too many employees, around 70 persons”, MediaBusiness reports.

The Komizdat publishing company started working in Ukraine in 1991. Spiel! with the circulation of 30 thousand is sold mainly through retail outlets. Seti I Telekommukikatsii is a subscription edition with the circulation of several thousands.

25.06.2009 Journalists of the Malakava News Agency have no free access to information. They are not allowed to official events and do not receive replies to information inquiries, said Olesya Tkachyk, Malakava’s Editor-in-Chief, to a press conference.

At the press conference, Malakava’s representatives discussed the issue of press freedom in Ivano-Frankivsk and pressure put on the local media, including Malakava.

Malakava’s Editor-in-Chief Olesya Tkachyk has told IMI that such problems most often are caused by the local authorities and city mayor Viktor Anushkevych.

“Once our journalists were not allowed to the Beauties of Ivano-Frankivsk beauty contest, held by the mayor. Our journalists were even forced from the hall by security guards, while journalists of other mass media could stay in the hall no problem”, Olesya Tkachyk said.

She also mentioned regular hacking attacks at the website of the news agency at the press conference.

“On May 15, the website of the Malakava News Agency was hacked for the first time. It took us six hours to make it work again. Immediately after that we filed the required documentation to the Ivano-Frankivsk Security Service to check the fact of unauthorized interference with work of our computer network. But it didn’t stop hackers from repeatedly attacking the website. In early June, the company’s server was hacked. This time it took three days to fix it. As Malakava resumed working, hackers posted a message on the personal page of the company’s executive officer promising to destroy the website in two weeks. They have started the countdown. There are eight days left before the “great” end of Malakava, according to the hackers”, Olesya Tkachyk said.

The news agency does not plan to stop working despite the pressure, said the editor-in-chief.

“I would also like to warn our visitors. Since the hackers have free access to the materials on the website, they can “edit” them. If there is some inadequate information in the news or information insulting officials or other persons, please consider it provocation, but not actions of our journalists. We also urge our colleagues from other mass media to take measures to ensure security of their editions”, said Olesya Tkachyk.

The management of the news agency has asked the Security Service and the prosecutor to launch an inquiry into the hacking attacks.

New data on economic, political and indirect pressure - 1

16.06.2009 MP Hanna Herman, member of the Party of the Regions, chair of the parliamentary committee for freedom of expression and information, asked Ukraine’s PM Yulia Tymoshenko to prevent the firing of Volodymyr Pavliuk, new chief-editor of the Novy Channel, she said in the Shuster live show on the Ukraine Channel.

Volodymyr Pavliuk was forced to file a resignation after he showed the notorious “Propalo vsio!” (It’s all over!) video of PM Tymoshenko’s statement in his news program Reporter.

Legal actions against mass media and journalists - 5

02.06.2009 The Kyiv appellate court ruled to satisfy a part of demands in the lawsuit of Igor Urbansky, deputy transport minister of Ukraine, against Kommersant-Ukraina company. Mr. Urbansky sought to defend his honor, dignity and business reputation. He demanded refutation of the information, published in the newspaper Kommersant, issue 184 of October 15, 2008, article The Greek cargo ship Faina can be Ukrainian by Kostiantyn Usov and Marta Bondarenko, . 

The court ruled to consider the information that Deputy Minister Igor Urbansky is an actual owner of the Faina cargo ship as inadequate and the phrase “Mr. Urbansky and Mr. Alperin have known each other for a long time, they have a common business. They have agreed that Alperin takes on a role of a public owner of the ship.” as untrue and damaging honor, dignity and business reputation of Igor Urbansky.

The court ordered Kommersant-Ukraina to publish the following refutation in the next issue in the same page as the article concerned:

“On October 15, 2008, the article “The Greek cargo ship Faina can be Ukrainian” by journalists Kostiantyn Usov and Marta Bondarenko was published in the newspaper Kommersant, issue 184. The said article contained inadequate information about Deputy Transport and Connection Minister Igor Urbansky, stating that Mr. Urbansky was an actual owner of Faina, which was captured by Somali pirates. According to the article, the declared owner of the ship, Israeli citizen Volodymyr Alperin, and Igor Urbansky have known each other for a long time and have some business. It has been allegedly agreed that Mr. Alperin shall act as a public owner of the ship”.

The rest of the lawsuit demands were left without change. The appellate court confirmed that the ship belongs to Kaalbye Group, which is connected to Igor Urbansky.

Oleksandr Voytov, lawyer of the Kommersant-Ukraina company, has told Telekritika he has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, asking to suspend the execution. Kommersant Director General and Editor-in-Chief Andriy Gogolev is surprised by the court ruling. “We don’t know what information to refute. I can’t remember a court ruling ordering to refute information, not contained in the article, specifically that Urbansky is an actual owner of the ship. We never wrote that. Moreover, spokespeople for the Ministry for Transport and Connection speak about finding the information on the corruption ties inadequate, but we never mentioned that in the article at all. That’s why we are going to reply in tomorrow’s issue that we are not going to refute anything. Moreover, we have filed an appeal”, Mr. Gogolev said.

On October 17, after the article in Kommersant, Igor Urbansky made public a statement denying any connections with Kaalbye Group and said he would sue the newspaper. On February 11, the Pechersk district court of Kyiv ruled to reject Igor Urbansky’s lawsuit. Viktor Petrunenko, the plaintiff’s lawyer, called such decision as “totally illegal” and said they would appeal it.

05.06.2009 Mykola Nikitiuk, Lutsk city council deputy, lost a trial on the lawsuit against the newspaper Vidomosti and Viche-Inform’s journalist Halyna Baran, a member of the Volyn Independent Media Union. The deputy sought moral damages reparation of 20 thousand hryvnias for humiliating his honor and dignity and publishing inadequate information (12 thousand hryvnias to be paid by the newspaper, 4 thousand hryvnias by the journalist and 4 thousand hryvnias by Zinayida Onyshchenko, who had allegedly instigated the conflict), reports Bohdana Stelmakh.

On June 3, 2008, Vidomosti published the article “A deputy steals residential yard” by Halyna Baran. It included a letter from the residents of a residential building who protested against the city council deputy starting construction works in the yard of their house and comments of the local officials (G. Shevchuk, head of the city construction department, and Lutsk mayor B. Shiba), who confirmed this fact. The deputy demanded that the newspaper publish a comment stating the abovementioned facts were libel without providing any permit for the construction works though.

Moreover, during the conflict the deputy changed his claims several times. When asked by the residents and journalists, he first said garages would be built in the area concerned, then he said it was not who was in charge of the construction works, but his son (even though the residents saw him working in the site). Another version was that he was not going to build any garages, organizing the yard instead (while a part of the wall had already been constructed). The prosecutor confirmed the fact of authorized construction works.

The Lutsk city court did not satisfy the deputy’s lawsuit. The latter is currently trying to find ways to make the construction works legal.

16.06.2009 The Shevchenko district court ordered the National Television Company of Ukraine to pay 10139 hryvnias 85 kopecks to its former employee Iryna Opekha.

 Iryna Opekha, a member of the Kyiv Independent Media Union, had filed a complaint to court because the administration of the National TV Company had not returned her job records for two months. All this time Ms. Opekha had to go to work to pass some company property to another authorized employee, in this way she was not able to get a new job for two months.

“I was surprised to find out that the National TV Company of Ukraine has no occupational instructions”, said Valentyna Prybylska, who represented the Kyiv Independent Media Union in court. “It’s a gross violation. In general, the company regularly violates the law, specifically the Law of Ukraine on Trade Unions, Their Guarantees and Activities. Employees are fired without prior consent of trade unions. It’s a violation”, she said.

17.06.2009 Inna Udovenko, a former employee of the National Television Company of Ukraine who has been recently fired, filed a lawsuit to the Shevchenko district court of Kyiv. Ms. Udovenko seeks to be reinstated in the position of an assistant director in the news program.

According to an order, Ms. Udovenko was fired “as a result of the changes in the organization of production and job reduction”. Inna Udovenko, a member of the Kyiv Independent Media Union, was fired when she was on a sick leave, which a gross violation of law. Firstly, employees cannot be fired while on sick leave. Secondly, members of trade unions cannot be fired without prior approval of trade unions. The Kyiv Independent Media Union has never given approval to firing Ms. Udovenko.

Inna Udovenko says when she arrived at the company after her sick leave, she could not enter the office since President of the National TV Company of Ukraine Vasyl Ilashchuk had personally ordered to blockade her pass though at that moment he had not signed an order to fire her yet.

Earlier, members of the committee of the Kyiv Independent Media Union had two meetings with the management of the National Television Company of Ukraine and offered to form a common commission to produce firing standards. However, the proposal was ignored. When asked by Telekritika if the National Television Company of Ukraine would fire its employees, members of the Kyiv Independent Media Union, without the union’s consent, President Vasyl Ilashchuk said: “We are going to fire them and then resolve all issues in court”. Vasyl Ilashchuk has recently been expelled from the Kyiv Independent Media Union.

22.06.2009 The Supreme Court of Ukraine passed a ruling in favor of Zhenskiy Zhurnal magazine in the case of painter Sergiy Poyarkov and sculptor Oleg Pinchuk vs. Zhenskiy Zhurnal.

According to a source in the Atlantic Group holding company (which publishes the magazine), details of the ruling are to be made public at the end of the week, when the litigants receive the text of the ruling. The court heard the case with both litigants absent.

The lawsuit was filed over the article “Art Fashion” (Zhenskiy Zhurnal, May 2007) by Olena Kyrychenko, calling Sergiy Poyarkov and Oleg Pinchuk “glossy artists”. Ms. Kyrychenko says the article presented general conclusions of a roundtable featuring a number of art experts and artists. In 2007, Sergiy Poyarkov and Oleg Pinchuk filed a lawsuit against the magazine to defend their honor, dignity and business reputation, seeking 10 thousand hryvnias each of moral damages. 

On June 26, 2008, the Pechersk district court of Kyiv passed a decision in favor of the plaintiffs. The magazine had to publicly apologize, refute the published information and pay 34 thousand hryvnias of moral damage reparation to Sergiy Poyarkov and Oleg Pinchuk. On September 26, the Kyiv appellate court confirmed the ruling of the Pechersk court. Representatives of Zhenskiy Zhurnal had to file a lawsuit to the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

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

Lawsuits filed by mass media and journalists - 1

01.06.2009 The Sevastopol economic court rejected a lawsuit, filed by the local TV channel NTS against the National Council for Television and Radio seeking to cancel the demand of the National Council to stop broadcasting advertisements in Russian.

The plaintiff also demanded “to recognize its right to broadcast in Russian”. The defendant was represented by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and Sevastopol prosecutor. The hearings took more than six months.

Sergiy Zayets, a legal representative of the channel, NTS plans to defend its interests in appellate courts and even the European Court of Human Rights.

New data on lawsuits filed by mass media and journalists - 1

17.06.2009 The newspaper Ratusha received an executive letter of the Halytsky district court of Lviv, ordering Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovy to refute inadequate information he had made public about the newspaper at the session of the Lviv city council on October 11, 2007 and at a press briefing on October 11, 2007.

The court decision entered into force on May 29, 2009. In 2007, Mr. Sadovy said about Ratusha, which was not funded in any way: “They receive money regularly and on time, though in envelopes (illegal salaries – ed.). It is an issue to be considered by law-enforcement agencies”, he said.

IMI