It has been nine years since the day of the killing of journalist Georgiy Gongadze. His mother still refuses to have the body found at Tarashcha buried, while his widow’s lawyer accuses the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine of procrastination. A Member of Ukraine’s Parliament from the Communist faction has attacked STB’s camera crew. The Kalashnikov case seems to be the lesson Ukraine’s MPs will have to learn all over again. Ukrainian media market is still dominated by the economic crisis. TONIS employees are not paid, while K1 channel has closed down its new service firing 20 journalists. These are the main events registered in September’s issue of the 2009 Press Freedom Barometer.

New data on killed journalists - 8

07.09.2009 Georgiy Gongadze’s mother, Lesya Gongadze, asks Ukrainian authorities and politicians not to use the name of the killed journalist in their election campaign. Lesya Gongadze doubts if the person arrested General Oleksiy Pukach was the one who killed her son.

“I saw Pukach being arrested on TV. He looked so good, with a nice hair style, and then they say that he was a shepherd. His looks did not suit his alleged activities. I even had doubts it was him”, she said.

Through the parliament’s ombudsperson Nina Karpachova, who visited Oleksiy Pukach, Lesya Gongadze asked the police general to answer her questions: “Why did he kill her son? Why was the blood on the belt, with which he strangled Georgiy, is not Georgiy’s as established by experts?”

“Why did this high-ranking general stoop so low and killed a person, strangling him with his own hands?” “Why, if he strangled Georgiy and cut off his head, a foot of the corpse in the morgue did not belong to Lesya Gongadze’s son?” “Why does the skeleton in the morgue have injuries on its left hand while Georgiy had them on his right?”

The journalist’s mother has medical documentation verifying Georgiy’s injuries he received during the war in Abkhazia.

“It [the certificate] confirms that my son had in furies on his right hand, but what I saw in the morgue, there were injuries of the bone of the left hand. I don’t believe it is my son’s body in the morgue”, she said.

“The Prosecutor’s General Office has forged the case and is continuing with the show, the horror series it has been showing for almost nine years”, Lesya Gongadze said.

“My daughter-in-law’s [Myroslava Gongadze’s] lawyer insists on the examination of the remains of the found skull, still claiming it is definitely Georgiy’s. Tell me why going in circles if they say it’s Georgiy’s. It is the same horror script all over again”, she said.

Lesya Gongadze also had a meeting with Ukraine’s ex-President Leonid Kuchma to find out what he meant when he said that Georgiy was still alive.

“He didn’t give me a specific answer, but referred to the facts I already knew. I understand he is not a free person. He refers to the documents he received from the Prosecutor’s General Office. He was not an expert”, she said.

The journalist’s mother is convinced that the situation with the Gongadze case is being abused on the eve of the presidential election, so she asks the politicians to leave her alone.

“I am not going to be a victim of the politicians again. They are not politicians, they are criminals, not even criminals – those don’t pretend and do what they want. They use Georgiy’s name again to get to power, to get media coverage, to have their names imprinted in people’s minds”, Lesya Gongadze said.

07.09.2009 The Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine initiates a DNA test to be performed on the fragments of the skull of journalist Georgiy Gongadze in the USA, Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko said. “We are currently working on it, to ensure US experts are available to perform this test”, Mr. Medvedko said.

He did not specify though which American institution would perform the DNA test. The Prosecutor General said the successful completion of the Gongadze case depended not on the investigators but on the efficiency of experts, Segodnya quotes him as saying.

In late July, investigators of the Prosecutor’s General Office found all fragments of the skull, allegedly belonging to Georgiy Gongadze, in Kyiv oblast.

Journalist Georgiy Gongadze went missing on September 16, 2000, later his beheaded body was found in a forest near Kyiv.

07.09.2009 Oleksiy Pukach, the former chief of the Criminal Intelligence Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, is actively cooperating with the investigators in the Gongadze case, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko says.

When asked whether there had been any confrontation of Oleksiy Pukach and the convicted murderers of the journalist arranged, Oleksandr Medvedko said: “I cannot answer this question, it is secrecy of investigation. Because it is still too early to talk about it. We will do it as soon as we need to”.

The masterminds of the killing have not been named yet, he said. “As soon as they are [named], we will let you know”, the Prosecutor General said. The investigators used Pukach’s help to reconstruct the crime scene at the spot in Bila Tserkva region, Kyiv oblast where Gongadze’s skull was found, said Prosecutor General Medvedko.

08.09.2009 Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn says he has never met Oleksiy Pukach, who is accused of killing Georgiy Gongadze. “No, it is not my level of acquaintances”, the parliament speaker told journalists.

He also denies he was summonsed to be questioned in the Gongadze case but did not turn up. “It is nonsense. If we continue this way, it is not going to be a dialogue”, he said indignantly.

Arresting Pukach was a political move, said Mr. Lytvyn. “I have no grounds to say if it [the arrest] is a good or a bad thing. Let’s believe it was the result of the search, and then life will show”, the parliament speaker said.

When asked about Leonid Kuchma’s connection to the murder of the journalist and his reaction when he was told about the murder, Volodymyr Lytvyn said: “I don’t think so. I think if this person were connected [to the murder], he would have never reacted in this way”. Earlier, Mr. Lytvyn said Oleksiy Pukach had been arrested to be used against some potential presidential candidates.

16.09.2009 There are certain agreements between ex-General Oleksiy Pukach and the investigators of the Prosecutor’s General Office that define the criminal case, said Myroslava Gongadze’s legal representative Valentyna Telychenko at a press conference. “I suspect a certain frame agreement was reached between Pukach and the investigators on the night of July 21-22 (when Pukach was arrested)”, Ms. Telychenko said. On the one hand, Ms. Telychenko says, “Pukach wants to ensure he is as comfortable as possible and to receive as short a jail sentence as possible”.

On the other hand, Ms. Telychenko is convinced, “the investigation is controlled by politicians”, and the officials of the Prosecutor’s General Office “are interested in keeping their positions, ranks and awards”. The lawyer says this agreement might cover the names of the masterminds, which Pukach may choose to make public or not.

“According to the agreement, the investigation forms the case to be passed to court”, Ms. Telychenko said. - “The Prosecutor’s General Office strikes an agreement with ex-Major Mykola Melnychenko, with the arrested Pukach and with those against the charges have not been pressed yet”.

Such “bargaining and blackmail” result in the investigation “wasting time”, Ms. Telychenko said. She says Pukach’s life is not threatened since the security measures used to protect him are highly serious.

16.09.2009 Lesya Gongadze plans to arrange a private examination of the skull which could belong to her son. The mother of the killed journalist says she has some additional biological material for such an examination and will demand the Prosecutor’s General Office to provide her with fragments of the recovered skull.

The Prosecutor’s General Office insists on burying the remains of the “Tarashcha body”, says the killed journalist’s mother. Several days ago, a representative of the Prosecutor’s General Office asked the woman to take decision on it. Lesya Gongadze, however, said she wanted to have the recovered skull examined and also to see the place, indicated by Oleksiy Pukach, where it had been found.

She says she would like to arrange for a private examination of the skull and is ready to provide material for it. “I have biological material I have brought from Tbilisi. It is little Georgiy’s teeth. It should provide a 100-percent result. I am going to have it done privately, for myself, I am going to ask for the bones”, Lesya Gongadze said.

The journalist’s mother has not decided yet what institution will conduct this examination, but there will not be too many volunteers to do that, she says. The mother of the killed journalist also says she is afraid for her life because she is convinced the examination will dot all the “i”s. But it is the only way to burying the body which will ease her conscience, says Lesya Gongadze.

She sees no prospects in the investigation and she does not believe the persons that have been hampering the investigation will ever be punished. Mrs. Gongadze doubts the masterminds will be found. She also plans to have a meeting with the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

This summer, the Prosecutor’s Genera Office of Ukraine confirmed a human skull had been found in Bila Tserkva region, Kyiv oblast, which according to the investigators belonged to Georgiy Gongadze. Later, Ukrainian forensic experts confirmed that the skull indeed belonged to Georgiy Gongadze.

24.09.2009 The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe notes with satisfaction the developments that had taken place in the investigation into the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, says a statement on the official website of the Council of Europe.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted a second Interim Resolution in the case of Gongadze v. Ukraine, the statement says. In its judgment the European Court of Human Rights found a violation of Article 2 of the Convention on account of the authorities’ failure to protect the life of Georgy Gongadze, a journalist, who was killed in September 2000. The Court also found that the investigation carried out by the Ukrainian authorities into the disappearance and killing of Mr. Gongadze was not effective.

The Committee noted with satisfaction the developments that had taken place in the investigation since the adoption of its first Interim Resolution in 2008. The Committee took note, in particular, of the ongoing phonoscope examination of the so-called Melnychenko recordings by the joint group of Ukrainian and foreign experts and of the re-arrest of the immediate superior of the former police officers convicted in 2008 for the murder of Mr. Gongadze.

The Committee also noted with satisfaction the promptness of certain investigative measures taken after this arrest. In the light of these developments, the Committee strongly encouraged the Ukrainian authorities to enhance their efforts with a view to bringing to an end the ongoing investigation whilst bearing in mind the findings of the Court in this case.

29.09.2009 The mother of the killed journalist Georgiy Gongadze is preparing an official address to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, warning him again burying the Tarashcha body without her written consent.

Lesya Gongadze also wants representatives of the Prosecutor General to be personally present when the fragments of the skull are passed for private examination, she says in her address to the Prosecutor General. She says she was not convinced by the results of the official forensic examination of the Tarashcha body that it belonged to her son.

“The feet of the Tarashcha body do not look like my son’s feet!!! Besides, the body had injuries in its left bone, while my son had his right had injured. And hair taken from the rotten muscle tissue was black”, Lesya Gongadze said.

In her statement, Lesya Gongadze questions the professional level of the Prosecutor’s General Office personnel responsible for the investigation into the murder of her son.

Journalists arrested, detained – 0

New data on journalists arrested, detained – 0

Journalists attacked, beaten, threatened - 2

22.09.2009 Obozrevatel’s correspondent Volodymyr Unzhin was attacked by unknown persons. It happed at about 2 in the morning. The journalist was approaching his house, when two cars drove up to him. According to Mr. Unzhin, one was a dark-colored Toyota Land Cruiser, the other Peugeot 706. The both cars had no front license plates.

“When the Land Cruiser stopped, some athletic looking guys got out of the car, several persons got out of the Peugeot too. I had no time to count them, more so to remember them, it was dark, and it hall happened so soon”, Mr. Unzhin said. “There were about 6 or 7 persons. As soon as they got out of the cars, they headed in my direction. I decided not to try my luck, so I turned away and started running. And I was right to do so, as it turned out”. Two persons followed the journalist, but he managed to escape.

Mr. Unzhin says the incident could have posed a threat to his life and health. He says it was caused by his professional activities. In the last few months, Obozrevatel has published a number of high-profile materials based on the journalist’s investigations, specifically about property of national authorities, details of the construction works of the Kyiv-based Voznesenski market, specifics of strong drinks marking and numerous violations committed by Chernivtsi authorities.

Obozrevatel calls this incident the beginning of persecution of “inconvenient journalists” in the context of the present election campaign. The Podilsky district police have started an investigation into the incident.

29.09.2009 ATV’s cameraman Dmytro Dokunov and journalist Olesya Klintsova were seriously injured shooting footage during the rally at the Odessa administrative court, which heard the case of the National Council for Television and Radio vs. the ATV channel of the Odessa National Popov Academy on canceling the channel’s license, says ATV’s Director Oleksandr Filippov.

Mr. Filippov says, Mr. Dokunov and Ms. Klintsova were filming the rally of extremist organizations Free Odessa (Svobodna Odessa), Freedom (Svoboda), UNA-UNSO, protesting against the information policy of the TV channel. The aggressive reaction of the participants was triggered when the cameraman started shooting their talks with police. They attacked him and took the camera. As a result, Mr. Dokunov’s hand was injured, while journalist Klintsova was hit in the head.

“We are going to file an appeal to the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine, demanding to institute criminal proceedings on the fact of the incident”, said Mr. Filippov. The TV channel will file a similar appeal to the parliamentary committee for press freedom, he said.

Mr. Filippov says, the persecution of the TV channel was caused by its information policies.

“There can be only one reason for it [the persecution]. We have started a campaign to force state officials with nationalistic views to resign. And naturally, Odessa’s nationalist forces are not happy about it. Neither are city authorities, we believe. The reason is simple – there are ultra-nationalists working in some bodies of the city council, like Natalya Chechuk and Andriy Yusov”, said Mr. Filippov.

In his turn, Andriy Yusov, Head of the Youth Policy Department of the Odessa city council, says ATV’s actions are “a dirty PR-campaign built on the blood of its own journalists”.

“Why would people, who came to the court to protest against ATV violating a number of civil rights, fanning international hostility, use violence and arrange provocations against themselves in this way? They don’t need it. Who needs it? The party Rodina (Motherland) does, ATV does, because it is their deceiving maneuver”, he said.

The goal of this maneuver is to divert attention from Rodina’s activities and criminal activities of its leaders, in particular Igor Markov, who is said to be connected to ATV. Mr. Yusov also says he is considering suing the TV channel himself for publishing inadequate information about him and his family, to defend his honor and dignity.

Regardless of the incident, the Odessa administrative court held a hearing in the case of the National Council for Television and Radio vs. ATV. The court scheduled a new hearing for October 20.

New data on journalists attacked, beaten, threatened - 2

11.09.2009 Police has found a person who attacked and injured UNIAN’s photographer Vitaliy Danylchenko during a raider attack at the Tavria plant, Nova Kakhovka, UNIAN quotes Kherson police representatives as saying.

According to a source in the Kherson police, this person is a security guard of the company. But when questioned, he denied using violence against the journalist. At the same time, according to police, the journalist had recorded the moment of the attack.

The examination of the camera is complete, and an expert is expected to provide their conclusions and to return the remains of the camera to Mr. Danylchenko tomorrow.

However, Kherson police says this case might be passed to the Nova Kakhovka prosecutor’s office once police has collected enough materials.

On September 3, at about 8.15 p.m., around 170 persons wearing black uniform with special weapons attacked the office of the Tavria plant trying to enter it.

Tavria’s employees and local people, the total of 1 thousand people, came to rescue to the plant. During the attack, UNIAN’s photographer in Kherson oblast Vitaliy Danylchenko was injured.

 17.09.2009 UNIAN’s photographer Vitaliy Danylchenko, who was injured when filming the conflict around the Tavria plant, Kherson oblast, says investigators of Nova Kakhovka tried to make him say he had not been working when he had been injured. The journalist, who ended up with brain concussion and various traumas, refused to do so. Several days ago, he was released from hospital and is currently staying at home, feeling bad.

Human rights activist Oleg Martynenko says this approach could be explained by investigators unwilling to mar the statistics, which police authorities normally use to assess the performance of regional police departments. Oleg Martynenko also says that the incident was caused not only by the attackers, but also the defenders of the plant. And the latter try to influence the investigators not to spoil their image of defenders even though they injured the journalist.

The incident took place on September 3, in the evening, when a group of young men wearing black uniform tried to enter the Tavria plant.

Impediment to practice journalistic profession, censorship - 2

01.09.2009 In the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, STB’s journalist Olga Chervakova was attacked by MP Oleksandr Tkachenko of the Communist party of Ukraine when she asked him for comment. The MP hit the microphone, grabbed it and went downstairs. Then he threw it out of the window. To register the offense, Ms. Chervakova called the law-enforcement and parliamentary security personnel.

Olga Chervakova says the actions of the MP can be classified as deliberate impediment to practice legal journalistic profession (p1., Art. 171, Criminal Code of Ukraine). When asked if she was going to sue Mr. Tkachenko, STB’s journalist said she had to discuss it with the channel’s lawyers.

02.09.2009 Policemen took the camera of Tetiana Krugova, ICTV’s news journalist. They broke it and deleted all shots. The journalist says ICTV’s camera crew found cannabis growing in Kyiv. Later, they took some cannabis for examination to the drug department of the Golosiyivsky district police.

Police officers blackmailed her and threatened to institute criminal proceedings against her for having drugs on her, Ms. Krugova says. The chief of the police department said the journalist had intended to rape him and had made shots in a prohibited area.

“I brought (cannabis) in my notebook. They verified it was cannabis. We started talking, then some man entered, started swearing, grabbed my camera, broke it and started blackmailing me. Give me the material and there will be no criminal case opened”, Tetiana Krugova said.

Ivan Bilous, the Head of the drug department of the Golosiyivsky police department said: “The journalist tried to rape me. She attacked me and sat down on my lap. It is an official facility of the police department, similarly to a nuclear power plant or an aircraft building plant”.

New data on impediment to practice journalistic profession - 9

 02.09.2009 The Kyiv Independent Media Union urges the Verkhovna Rada committee for press freedom to investigate more than just a conflict between MP Oleksandr Tkachenko and STB’s journalist Olga Chervakova. The MP grabbed Ms. Chervakova’s microphone and threw it to the floor. This case was not an accident; it embodies entire philosophy of attitude of state bodies and authorities to mass media. Thus it is highly important to investigate other incidents too to prevent this trend from developing into a system.

“Impunity of state authorities abusing journalists will cause an increase of such incidents during the election campaign. It will eliminate all achievements in the area of freedom of expression, which our politicians are so proud of”, the Kyiv Media Union says in its statement.

02.09.2009 The public movement Za Ukrainu! (For Ukraine!) urges authorities to institute criminal proceedings against MP Oleksandr Tkachenko of the Communist party of Ukraine, which attacked STB’s journalist in the parliament, says Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, the leader of the movement.

“We would like to remind MPs-Communists that they are in the parliament of democratic Ukraine, but not at a congress of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. And their work is covered not by the newspaper Communist but by representatives of independent mass media”, he said.

“Unfortunately, as long as we have these untouchable, incidents when MPs, enjoying their own immunity, attack journalists, hunt people or simply ignore the law, are a part of our everyday life”, Mr. Kyrylenko said.

“Therefore we urge the parliament speaker and two biggest political forces in the Verkhovna Rada, the Party of the Regions and the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, to adopt a law canceling legislative immunity”, he said.

“The Ukrainian parliament has to get rid of the deputies who hiding behind their immunity act like simple criminals”, Mr. Kyrylenko said.

03.09.2009 A law-enforcement employee, against whom criminal proceedings have been instituted, threatens ICTV’s journalist Tetiana Krugova. “A man called me, who didn’t introduce himself, and said if I didn’t come to the district police department, he would start looking for me. The ICTV management were said the same”, the journalist told IMI.

The police officer threatened her with instituting criminal proceedings against her for having drugs on her, Ms. Krugova said. However, the Golosiyivsky district prosecutor said no criminal proceedings would be instituted against her.

Today, Tetiana Krugova, accompanied by two Members of Parliament – Mykola Katerynchuk of the Our Ukraine - People’s Self-Defense bloc and Vladyslav Lukyanov of the Party of the Regions – filed a complaint to the Golosiyivski district prosecutor, Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine about the abuse of power. The said authorities are currently checking the information about the incident.

08.09.2009 Parliamentary journalists urge state authorities to institute criminal proceedings against MP Oleksandr Tkachenko of the Communist party of Ukraine based on the fact of impeding STB’s camera crew to practice journalistic profession, the journalists say in their address to the parliament, the Communist faction, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, made public today.

“We, journalists accredited at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, are incensed about the behavior of your colleague. We consider Oleksandr Tkachenko’s actions as illegal under Art. 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on Impediment to Practice Legal Journalistic Profession”, they say in the statement.

Further on, the journalists consider Oleksandr Tkachenko’s actions as “manifestation of pressure on press freedom and disrespect not only of journalists, but also their audience, i.e. your voters”.

The journalists are shocked by the statement of the leader of the Communist party Petro Symonenko, who said that the journalist had allegedly provoked the MP. “Representatives of parliamentary parties that respect themselves and their voters and declare their commitment to the principles of freedom and democracy cannot make such statement”, the journalists say.

The journalists urge authorities to evaluate the actions of Tkachenko, stop discrediting STB’s camera crew, which humiliates all journalists that cover activities of the Verkhovna Rada, and call on Petro Symonenko to refute his previous statement on the incident.

“If these demands are not met, we might consider boycotting legislative initiatives of the Communist faction and some of its representatives. We call on all Members of Parliament, Prosecutor General, the Interior Ministry and the public to contribute to immediate institution of criminal proceedings under Art. 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and further efficient investigation”, the journalists say in their statement.

09.09.2009 The police inspector who ignored the information of ICTV’s journalist Tetiana Krugova on cannabis growing in Golosiyivsky district, Kyiv, has been punished, said Lieutenant General Vitaliy Yaremcha, Chief of Kyiv police, at the roundtable ‘Journalists and police: seeking mutual understanding while performing professional duties’.

“He has been reprimanded. It means in the event of another mistake, he will be fired”, the Kyiv police chief said.

Police has checked the facts of the incident, including the actions of the chief of the drug department of the Golosiyivsky police department Ivan Bilous, he said. “The materials of the official investigation have been passed to the prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor has not decided yet whether to institute criminal proceedings”, Vitaliy Yarema said.

“Those statements about the rape are moral and ethical problems of our colleague, which will be evaluated. But I don’t want you to judge the entire system based on the actions of one person”, he added.

Later, the cannabis bushes were found, but not at the address the journalist had mentioned, Vitaliy Yarema said. “There were no bushes in the yard she had spoken about. But 40 meters farther we found six cannabis bushes, we poured some fuel on them and burnt them”, he said.

Police confiscated 5,3 gm of “wet” cannabis (criminal proceedings can be instituted for 20 gm of “wet” or 5 gm of “dry” cannabis). He said the police officers’ reaction had been caused by the fact that Tetiana Krugova used a spy cam on the premises of the district police department without the consent of the police chief. As a result she had to give up the camera and go through a lengthy interrogation.

Tetiana Krugova, who informed the police about the cannabis plants growing in one of Kyiv’s yards, was detained for drug possession and questioned for several hours. Her camera was destroyed and the video deleted. Ivan Bilous accused the journalist of trying to rape him. Later, she was summonsed to interrogation again, but when she arrived accompanied by two Member of Parliament, police officers said they had no questions to her. On September 1, ICTV showed a story about the incident, which was followed by a reaction of spokespeople for the Kyiv police.

09.09.2009 The police has passed the materials on the incident that took place in the Verkhovna Rada between MP Oleksandr Tkachenko (the Communist party of Ukraine) and STB’s journalist to the prosecutor’s office, said Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko.

“Yes, we have passed the materials to the prosecutor so that a decision could be made whether to institute criminal proceedings for impediment to practice journalistic profession”, he said.

He also said the police are not authorized to institute criminal proceedings based on this kind of incidents.

14.09.2009 The Shevchenkivski district court heard explanations of the defendant in the case of the attack on the Closed Zone’s camera crew.

On June 25, when journalist Olena Bondarenko and cameraman Sergiy Kolesnikov were shooting footage for the program Warning at the building of the communal enterprise Pharmacy, they were approached by one of the employees of the company who tried to stop the shooting. First he covered the camera with his back, then he sprayed tear gas into the cameraman’s eyes.

As it turned out, it was the former Head of the legal department of Pharmacy Vladyslav Panfilov who had used tear gas against the cameraman. Criminal proceedings were instituted against him for deliberate impediment to practice journalistic profession and inflicting bodily injuries to Closed Zone’s cameraman Sergiy Kolesnikov (who had injured skin of his head, neck, collarbone and shoulders). The victims also filed two civil lawsuits seeking moral damage compensation. Olena Bondarenko seeks 1 thousand hryvnia of moral damage, while Sergiy Kolesnikov hopes to receive 50 thousand hryvnias. Judge Kyrylo Kormushin was appointed to hear the case. 

In his explanations, the defendant pled guilty and said he “was sorry” but did not agree to the amount of moral damage compensation.

“I have realized illegality of my actions, that the actions I have committed are illegal. I have made my conclusions and I will not do it again. If I see somebody shooting me, I will just turn away. If the damage [compensation] was not that big (because I am unemployed at the moment, I have no money), I would pay it. But it is the amount of my annual salary, it is shocking”, said Mr. Panfilov.

Vladyslav Panfilov told his version of the events of June 25 and explained his actions. He resigned from Pharmacy on June 24 (the day before the incident with the journalists). On June 25, he came to the human resources department to collect his documents, he said.

“It was hot, I went outside and saw a woman with a microphone and a man with a camera”, he said. “They did not introduce themselves. Nor did they show any IDs. But they said they were shooting footage for a program. I was standing with my back to the camera. After that the woman told me I was impeding the shooting and that she would call police. She left. I thought somebody was pushing me from behind. I have my tear gas spray with me (somebody had given it to me, and I always had it with me). In order to scare away the person who, as I thought, was pushing me with a camera, I sprayed some gas towards Kolesnikov. After he stopped filming, I entered the building”, the ex-security guard explained.

The defendant says the journalists did not introduce themselves, while Olena Bondarenko and Sergiy Kolesnikov insist that they said their names several times and warned him that impediment to practice journalistic profession was a criminal offense. Representatives of Sergiy Kolesnikov and Olena Bondarenko stress the contradictions in the evidence of the defender, who first claimed he had had no tear gas spray and had not used it against the journalists. Then he said that the burns on the cameraman’s face and body could have been caused by the sun which “is characteristic of the hot weather and the position of the burns”. But Vladislav Panfilov says he did not change his evidence, but simply clarify it. For instance, when he said he had never had a tear gas spray he meant he had not had a permit to have one.

According to Olena Bondarenko, Closed Zone’s camera crew arrived at Pharmacy where they shot a stand-up for the story. Two days before they had filmed an interview with the director of Pharmacy.

“We told a security guard who we were and what we were doing. He returned to the building and did not have any questions to us. Later, Mr. Panfilov came out to us. Without asking who I was and what company I represented, he started accusing us of telling lies. He pressed we had to leave. Then he covered the camera. I told him that we were journalists, that his actions were criminal and that if he didn’t leave I would have to call police. As I found out, Mr. Panfilov is a professional lawyer and he had to be aware that his actions were illegal. When asked to introduce himself, he said he was Alexander Pushkin”, said Olena Bondarenko.

When Olena Bondarenko went to the car to get her phone to call police, Sergiy Kolesnikov recalls that the defendant did not leave the camera, then he called the cameraman and sprayed tear-gas four times. “I covered my face with my hands, and the gas got to my hands and back. Panfilov and another man were standing there, laughing: “Look, the man feels so bad that he’s crying”. After that they left”, Sergiy Kolesnikov says.

As for the civil lawsuit, Olena Bondarenko insists on moral damage that was caused when she had to answer the questions of police and the prosecutor when she was supposed to work. Instead she had to work on weekends “and could not communicate with her child”. “Besides I worry about the outcome of this case. I worry about this case and that anyone who does not like me, or who sees me with a camera, will spray tear gas at me because of their unclear ideas”. Sergiy Kolesnikov said in his explanation to the court he had been hurt both physically and emotionally: “Realizing that the defendant humiliated me in front of a lot of people made me suffer”. Besides, Sergiy Kolesnikov’s children fell ill on the same day, but he could not be with them because of the interrogations.

28.09.2009 The Pechersk district prosecutor refused to institute criminal proceedings against MP Oleksandr Tkachenko of the Communist party of Ukraine.

The prosecutor’s office checked the facts reported by STB’s correspondent Olga Chervakova about illegal actions of MP Tkachenko. On September 1, 2009, when the journalist tried to interview him at the Verkhovna Rada, he damaged the microphone, which, according to the plaintiff, prevented her from doing her job.

The inspection verified the fact of MP Oleksandr Tkachenko damaging the microphone of the TV company. However, according to the prosecutor, such actions of the MP were not criminal. Under the Criminal Code of Ukraine, it is deliberate damage or ruining of another person’s property on a large scale that is qualified as criminal offense (under p.3, Art. 185, Criminal Code of Ukraine, a major offense is to be 250 times bigger than tax-exempt minimum income of citizens, i.e. 4250 hryvnias).

According to STB, the microphone costs 1330 hryvnias.

According to the investigators, the MP had no intents to impede professional activities of either the journalist, or the TV channel. The investigators say Oleksandr Tkachenko was provoked by persistent actions of journalist Chervakova, who tried to get answers to her questions even though the MP denied comment.    

Thus, the prosecutor refused to institute criminal proceedings against MP Tkachenko since his actions could not be qualified as offense under part 1, Art. 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (impediment to practice journalistic profession) and part 1, Art. 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (deliberate damaging or ruining another person’s property).

However, the journalist and the TV channel have a right to seek both moral and material damage compensation in civil court.

According to the prosecutor, the actions of MP Oleksandr Tkachenko can be evaluated by the Parliamentary committee for the Verkhovna Rada Regulations, deputy code of ethics and provision of legislative activities. Representatives of the Parliamentary committee for press freedom held a meeting on September 9 and condemned the behavior of MP Tkachenko.

On September 9, police passed the materials on the incident that had taken place in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine between MP Oleksandr Tkachenko of the Communist party and STB’s journalist to a prosecutor’s office.

29.09.2009 STB’s parliamentary correspondent Olga Chervakova found out about the decision of the prosecutor from the online news. “When I called the investigator, he told me he had sent me a copy of the resolution not to institute criminal proceedings on September 18. He mentioned the address where I live and where I check my mail box every day. Today, it is September 28, and under the law I have 10 days to appeal this decision. I mean there is no time left to do it”. In this way “the prosecutor’s office has shown its true face again”, Olga says.

“I don’t understand where our law-enforcement bodies lie – when they pass such exotic decisions, or when the Prosecutor’s General Office declares it protects rights of journalists. The resolution of the Pechersk district prosecutor states MP Tkachenko did not intend to impede my professional activities, and it says in the same paragraph that he did it because he did not want to answer my questions. In my opinion, “did not want to answer my questions” was exactly the “intent” the prosecutor could not find”, she says.

Olga Chervakova does not intend to give up. “I am very glad that it took the prosecutor little time to pass the decisions that we were not made to wait as long as STB’s camera crew in the Kalashnikov case in 2006. I will be happy if the hearing in this case is open. And in this case, I’m sure, a court will pass a just and legal decision. I will demand a copy of the resolution from the prosecutor, which I have never received. Plus I’m going to ask them to provide me with a copy of a receipt on the delivery of this letter to me. I hope they have it. As soon as I have these documents, I will file an appeal to court”, the journalist said.

Olga Chervakova says the case will gain more attention due to the unprofessional actions of the prosecutor’s office, which did not want to resolve the journalist’s conflict with MP Tkachenko. Apart from the appeal, the journalist plans to send a letter to the parliamentary committee for legislative support to law-enforcement bodies because she thinks the Pechersk prosecutor’s office chose to ignore her conflict with the Member of Parliament.

Economic, political, indirect pressure - 5

01.09.2009 TONIS’ journalists went on hunger strike. They sent a statement to their management informing it that if they did not receive their salaries they would stop the broadcasting.

04.09.2009 The publishing company Ekonomika plans to fire a number of its employees, close down the newspaper Rankova Presa and to change the format of the newspaper Delo. The publisher of Delo and Investgazeta, Ekonimika publishing company, has received 23% less income than originally planned during the first six months of the year, report investors’ representatives at the meeting with the team which was held on September 4.

The worst results were demonstrated by two editions (though it was not specified which editions). Ekonomika publishes magazines Marketing Media Review, Logistics, BusinessSpolight and Praktika Otsenki. It plans to close down the worst performing editions at the end of the year.

The subscription edition Rankova Pressa is to be closed down too at the end of the year.

Investigazeta will remain intact, while Delo will face dramatic changes. Delo’s Editor-in-Chief Galyna Panchenko does not specify what changes are waiting for the edition.

The retail prices of Delo and Investgazeta will be raised, while editorial staff reduced. In particular, it is planned to fire up to 10% of the editorial staff. The fired employees are to be paid compensation in the amount of three-month salaries.

It was not specified who would be fired and what departments would be reduced, that’s why Galyna Panchenko and Investgazeta’s Editor-in-Chief Sergiy Vovk were asked if their staff would be reduced. Both editors-in-chief said they did not plan to fire anybody. They also said that it was planned to assess efficiency of every employee. “If somebody does not live up to quantity or quality standards of the materials, then we will have to decide whether we need this employee. But it is not job reduction, it’s a normal practice of efficiency assessment. Quite on the contrary, we are considering the possibility of hiring new people”, Mr. Vovk said. He also said two projects were in for personnel rotation since they had failed to reach the planned profitability level.

Instead, the publishing company plans to focus on the development of online editions, updating Investgazeta’s website. The edition has recently hired a new online sales manager.

According to the PR Director of the publishing company Vitaliy Maksimov, the funds, saved as a result of optimization, would be used to improve and develop the existing projects. The company does not give any details though.

10.09.2009 Two journalists from Vinnytsia filed a request to the local prosecutor urging the authorities to make their employer, Media Dim RIA, pay them their due salaries and penalties for the delay. According to the statement, Olena Shmygelska, Editor-in-Chief of the editions 20 Khvylyn and RIA, and editor Kateryna Barkalova were fired without a 30-day notice as indicated in the corporate agreement, spokespeople for the Kyiv Independent Media Union report.

Media Dim RIA management refuses to pay them their due salaries. The journalists say that some of reports of completion have their signatures put some unknown persons.

Olena Shmygelska cannot receive due payments from the Social Insurance Fund, which she is entitled since she was injured while she was working, she says. When she was on a business trip, she got into a car accident and was badly injured as a result: she had a brain injury, moderate brain contusion, lacerations in the head, her right ear badly injured and amputated, her shoulder broken, fingers of the left hand injured, and lacerations on both hands.

16.09.2009 Journalist Tetiana Chornovil from the online edition Oboz resigns because she has not been paid for several months. “I am going to officially resign when I get my salary. So far I am working as a freelancer for several editions”, Ms. Chornovil said.

Tetiana Chornovil is working for Ukrainska Pravda and Livyi Bereg at the moment.

Tetiana Chornovil has been working for Oglyadach for four years, the longest among other journalists, and has become a face of the edition. Before Oglyadach, she worked for magazines PiK and Companion.

23.09.2009 Sergiy Sozanovsky, Chair of the Board of Directors of the TV channel Inter,  informed K1’s team that the program Odnogo Dnia (One Day) would be closed.

“The management gave us the exact reason for closing down the news, saying the news program did not suit the format of K1”, Tetiana Kozyreva, a news journalist, said.

Most journalists were offered jobs in the U.A. InterMediaGroup Limited, others resigned. Those journalists that would not be able to find their place in the Inter group, would receive due compensation under the Ukrainian law.

“We also signed a document stating that we were duly notified about the closure of the project and the reduction of our jobs in two months”, said Alla Frorushina, a news editor.

The Ukrainian Independent TV Corporation Ltd. is the biggest broadcaster in Ukraine’s television market. It is the owner of the brands INTER and INTER+. The TV channel is a part of the U.A. InterMediaGroup, owning TV channels NTN, K1, Megasport, K2, Enter-film, Enter-music and other media assets.

New data on economic, political and indirect pressure - 2

02.09.2009 Tonis management paid half of salaries to the channel’s journalists. “We have started working again. If by 6 p.m. we don’t the amount we were promised, there will be no 6.30 news”, said journalist Anna Sukhodolova.

22.09.2009 Kharkiv communal newspaper Slobidsky Krai was published with only two words printed – Protest Action. In this way, the journalists of the edition protest against the delays in payment of their salary: “We have been working without our salaries for five months”, said Lina Kopetska, executive secretary of the newspaper.

The problems started at the beginning of the year, said Ms. Kopetska, when the newspaper received 400 thousand hryvnias from the budget, which was twice less than the previous year. The money would cover only printing and communal expenses, said Ms. Kopetska.

Oleksiy Lypchansky, Head of the oblast department for press, called the team’s demands “the highest form of cynicism”. The newspaper Editor-in-Chief receives the salary of 5,5 thousand hryvnias without even trying to fight the consequences of the economic crisis, he said.

Officials say the journalists will be made liable for the empty pages of the magazine as over 16 thousand hryvnias of the state budged were wasted. The materials of the case are to be passed to the prosecutor’s office.

Editor-in-Chief Volodymyr Revenko said: “All salaries of [the employees] of the communal newspaper are seen as state funded. We have nothing to do with them”.

New data on economic and political pressure - 1

10.09.2009 Alla Korcheva, Director of the Media Dim Ria LLC, demands that Olena Shmygelska, former Editor-in-Chief of the daily 20 Khvylyn and weekly RIA, withdraw her appeal from the Leninsky district prosecutor’s office, Vinnytsia.

“Today, Director Alla Korcheva has called me and demanded that I withdraw my appeal from the prosecutor’s office. If I fail to do so, on Monday, September 14, she will file a “defamation” counter claim”, Ms. Shmygelska said.

Legal actions against mass media and journalists - 1

17.09.2009 The Novozavodsky district court, Chernihiv, announced a verdict in the case of Vadym Antoshin, Head of the residential-communal department of the city council, vs. Za Chernihiv NGO and Valeriy Lytovchenko, editor of the city’s biggest newspaper Za Chernihiv. Mr. Antoshin sought protection of his honor and business reputation. The court supported the claim of the city’s communal chief and ordered the defendants to pay him the compensation of five thousand hryvnias.

The lawsuit was caused by the article ‘A 20-million hole in the budged’, published by Za Chernihiv (No1, January 29, 2009), where he was allegedly called ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ for his deals with subcontractors providing communal services.

At the court hearing, Mr. Antoshin said he was going to sue the newspaper and the non-governmental organization over other critical materials too. Moreover, Mr. Antoshin also demanded that the court ban the newspaper to use his name and position in its articles, which was not supported by the court though.

On September 16, Mr. Antoshin protested against filming the court sitting. The court supported his request and did not allow journalists to record the sitting.

The newspaper Za Chernihiv and the NGO of the same name plan to challenge this verdict in higher courts and, if they have to, in the state judicial administration, says Hennadiy Lutsenko, legal representative of the NGO Za Chernihiv.

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

07.09.2009 Igor Zvarych, the former Chair of the Lviv administrative court of appeals, filed over 30 lawsuits with the Frankivsky district court, Lviv, against the newspaper Vysoky Zamok seeking compensation for the published false information about him and protection of his honor and dignity.

“At the hearing of the first of Zvarych’s lawsuits against the newspaper, Chair of the Frankivsky district court Svitlana Martyanova told us a “great” news of having received over 30 lawsuits from Zvarych against Vysoky Zamok”, the newspaper’s representatives say.

In his lawsuits, Zvarych seeks refutation of the facts, published by the newspaper. According to some lawsuits, the newspaper defames Zvarych in the eyes of the Ukrainian public calling him “elusive”. “Highly offensive for me is the title of the article where a journalist cynically calls me “elusive”, Zvarych says in his statement.

The newspaper says Zvarych seeks 0,1 mln hryvnias of compensation in each lawsuit.

In August, Igor Zvarych, the former Chair of the Lviv administrative court of appeals, requested the Frankivsky district court of Lviv to order the newspaper Vysoky Zamok to pay him 0,15 mln hryvnias for publishing false information about him in order to protect his honor and dignity. The Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine is currently investigating five criminal cases against Zvarych, who was accused of bribery.

18.09.2009  The Desnyansky district court of Kyiv satisfied a part of lawsuit demands in the case of Yuri Sydorenko, Chair of the Advisory Board of the EDAPS Consortium, vs. Blitz-Inform LLC (the Business newspaper), journalist Maksym Birovash and Business’ former Editor-in-Chief Sergiy Kobyshev, says Maksym Birovash’ representative Oleksandr Burmagin.

The total amount in the lawsuit is 46 mln hryvnias. The court reduced it to 6 mln of moral damage compensation and 600 thousand hryvnias of judicial expenses for the publishing company Blitz-Inform and ordered Maksym Birovash and Sergiy Kobyshev to pay the plaintiff 5 thousand hryvnias of moral damage compensation and 510 hryvnias of judicial expenses each.

Yuri Sydorenko demands the refutation of three sentences from the series of journalistic investigations of Maksym Birovash concerning Ukraine’s passport system. He also seeks moral damage compensation. The plaintiff says his right for private life was violated as the journalist used his name, his image and details of his family life in his materials.

Oleksandr Burmagin intends to challenge the decision of the Desnyansky district court in a court of appeals. “We do not agree with all lawsuit demands. Maksym used enough documents in his materials verifying his profession level and the fact that he checked all the information”, the lawyer said.

It is the second hearing of the Sydorenko vs. Birovash case. Yuri Sydorenko sought 46 mln hryvnias of compensation in his lawsuit against Blitz-Inform and had to pay state duty of 4,6 mln hryvnias in November 2007.

On May 23, 2008, the Desnyansky district court ordered the publishing company to pay him 22 mln hryvnias and the author of the materials and editor-in-chef 5 thousand hryvnias each.

On September 24, 2008, the Kyiv court of appeals rejected the lawsuit in the part of moral damage compensation, however ordered the publishing company to refute the published information and banned to use the plaintiff’s photos in its publications.

The Supreme Court of Ukraine cancelled the decisions of the district court and the court of appeals and returned the case for further consideration.

Judge Olena Kalchenko of the Desnyansky district court entered the National Union of Journalists’ list of “Enemies of Ukrainian Journalism - 2008” this year for ordering to pay a huge amount of moral damage compensation.

23.09.2009  The Frankivsky district court closed the Igor Zvarych vs. Express case. The court passed decision in favor of the newspaper Express at the first hearing, say legal representatives of the publishing group Express.

Ex-Judge Zvarych filed a lawsuit against the newspaper to protect his honor and dignity. But lawyer Oleksiy Maliarchuk says Express was more convincing in its argumentation since “Zvarych demanded to refute information which was not published by Express, but by other editions”. Judge Zvarych sought moral damage compensation of 50 thousand hryvnias.

The ex-judge of the Lviv administrative court of appeals has filed lawsuits against the Lviv-based edition Vysoky Zamok, Kyiv-based editions Segodnya and Fakty. As of the end of August, the Frankivsky district court of Lviv received 30 lawsuits against mass media, journalists, personnel of the Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine and the President of Ukraine from the former Judge Igor Zvarych.

Lawsuits filed by mass media and journalists - 0

New data on lawsuits filed by mass media and journalists – 0

IMI