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Point of View
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By Nadiya Virna
There were once a whore and politician. She sold her body, he sold his conscience and power. The whore was selling herself for three hundreds bucks, him, he was selling himself for some millions bucks and a term in office. Sometimes, their ways crossed: he was used to buy her flesh. Surely, for public money. It was found out, the state kicked her out in the street, and now, as if to mock at, it offered her some pay.
So they lived. Both of them served: a public service for him, and, say, a specific service for her.
He was used to serve in the daytime, she was used to serve by night. He was preparing himself to be elected, she was preparing herself to be selected. He worked with electors, she worked with clients. He promised to make everyone happy tomorrow, she made happy someone just now.
…Politician saw in her nothing but a mean whore, someone without any right, someone you could hit or insult. But try only insulting him! He has his immunity. Law is on his side. And she is outlawed, ousted from society. An outlawed more or less, not so important: this is Ukraine, gosh!
PS.17 December, is the day against violence to sex-worker. On the most of European countries prostitution has been decriminalized and legitimized. There, the state surveys continuously prostitution. But, the ours is too hard busy with a political one. |
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Nova Kakhovka Dangerous for Journalists |
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Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
Welcome to Nova Kakhovka, a town in Kherson region. Five newspapers are published here per 75 thousands of the local population. In the last three years, journalists have been assaulted five times here.
When Dmytro Orlov, Novaya Khakhovka’s correspondent, was doing his job, officials of the regional Department for Combating Organized Crime seized his camera, acting rather aggressively. The law-enforcement agents gave back the camera, owned by the newspaper, only after journalists of all the local mass media protested publicly against their illegal actions. In 2007, Mr. Orlov moved to Kyiv and has been working as a journalist for Delo newspaper every since.
Maksym Birovash, Deloviye Novosti’s correspondent, has been intimidated several times over his articles. Two years ago, unknown persons attacked him. Mr. Birovash has been employed by Kyiv-based Business weekly since 2006.
Oleksandr Hunko, Deloviye Novosti’s editor, has been beaten and attacked too. On March 2, 200 , he was savagely beaten and robbed of his money and the editorial office keys. The Nova Kakhovka prosecutor denied criminal proceedings over impediment to practice journalistic profession. The local police opened a criminal case under Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - hooliganism. The case was soon closed, and Mr. Hunko moved to Kyiv, where he has been working for Gazeta Po-Ukrainski ever since.
On December 28, 2006, unknown persons attacked Nova Kakhovka’s journalist Kostiantyn Ivanov, disabled from childhood, took his money and newspaper ID. A week before the attack, Mr. Ivanov had received threats over one of his high-profile materials. The local prosecutor rejected criminal proceedings based on Article 171 – impediment to practice journalistic profession, instituting proceedings over armed assault instead. Mr. Ivanov is not working currently.
On March 16, 2008, Sergiy Tsygipa, the director of the Kakhovsky Platzdarm journalistic investigation bureau, was attempted to kill. The journalist was left with his nose broken, two teeth knocked out, and a brain concussion. The saddest thing about this case however, not yet resolved, is that two days before this cruel assault Mr. Tsygipa had filed an official petition to the city police department, saying an attempt on his life was being prepared. The journalist named probable masterminds of the crime and demanded protection.
Not only did the police fail to protect the journalist, they were also so negligent that they lost(!) Mr. Tsygipa’s petition of March 14. Investigators of the local police department never saw the petition. The police instituted criminal proceedings under Article 296 – hooliganism.
Below, you will find Sergiy Tsygipa’s article on the situation with him and problems of press freedom in Ukraine. We preserve the style and language used by the author (IMI).
CONFESSION FROM THE OTHER SIDE
You can say this self-interview is some kind of a confession from the other side. It’s not the dead that need it however, but the living. There is only one way to defeat those that try to shut up journalists with brass-knuckles or bullets. It is publicity. This monster is afraid of light… And publicity is a ray of light in the ocean of Ukrainian corruption.
Questions to the local “puppeteers”
I am perfectly aware I am not an angel, and my journalistic investigations and public comments must be real “pain in the ass” for some of Nova Kakhovka’s officials. But, using your terms, ladies and gentlemen, I act within the “legal field” only. Why don’t you participate in this public discussion personally? Why wouldn’t you try to convince me and our audience, your voters, your position is right? Have you got no more arguments and facts left? Is that why you decided to teach this “journo” and deputy of three city councils (elected individually, but not as a representative of some party, by the way) a lesson with brass-knuckles? Are you really so weak that you had to hire scum to deal with me?
Police taking care of me?!
“Mayakovski lied! My police does not take care of me!” I thought to myself in a surgery unit, where I had been brought after I was almost killed. And I had a right to think so.
Firstly, I filed a petition to the Nova Kakhovka police department about possible attempt at my life over my professional activities – journalistic investigations. Two days later I was almost murdered. Almost. In the corridor of my house. By professionals. In total silence.
Secondly, no police arrived at the crime scene, eager to find the killers “hot on the trail”. There must be a purpose for training their dogs at the Nova Kakhovka police department, but I am not sure I know it.
Two persons, whom I had been investigating and who had organized this crime, left absolutely specific evidence behind them. All our valiant law-enforcement agents had to do was leave their computer games and crosswords and arrive at the crime scene. They would have seen my blood, covering the floor of the corridor, with their own eyes then.
Not speaking about an “identikit” picture. It must be some kind of fiction, shown only in Russian and American movies. Somehow, nobody asked me to recognize the “tipper-of”, though I insisted I would be able to do that for sure.
Only now that I have been denied criminal proceedings on my case by the prosecutor I begin to see the reasons for the police’s inefficiency. It seems to be really convenient and easy to “hush up” potentially high-profile crimes. Law-enforcement agents of Nova Kakhovka picked this way in my case too.
They say brilliant things are simple. Did you file the petition? Ok. We passed it to the prosecutor, it’s his jurisdiction. What do you want us to do? We have already instituted criminal proceedings against an unknown person over hooliganism. Why would you care for it? – I believe that was what our law-enforcement agents thought.
A detective, who interrogated me after the attack, must have ignored my written request on the protocol to enclose my petition on the attempt upon my life with it. The detective has his own logic, chiefs and reports. Why would our police want a high-profile unsolved crime on them? They chose to call it another common case of hooliganism, usual for any town or city in Ukraine.
Thirdly, the Nova Kakhovka law-enforcement agencies started to take the first active steps to investigate the crime only after I had personally come to the Interior Ministry of Ukraine to report on a low professional level of the local police. Now that my case is under personal control of the police minister, there is some hope at least that this method of “hushing up” high-profile crimes against journalists in Nova Kakhovka, polished with years, will be somewhat altered.
As for the Nova Kakhovka prosecutor, I don’t think I should expect a miracle. Without questioning me, a detective of the prosecutor’s office has taken decision not to institute criminal proceedings under Article 171 – impediment to practice journalistic profession. They say the prosecutor’s office has never had such precedents. Of course, they haven’t… But any crime was once committed for the first time. Take Georgiy Gongadze’s abduction…
God has a plan for me
I am not superstitious at all, probably, because I believe in God. That’s why I take quite philosophically everything that has ever happened to me. Now I believe it is true that “anything that does not kill us makes us stronger”. I feel I am growing stronger.
When clutching at a straw of Life you manage to escape the Grim Reaper, you get to understand God really has some plan for you. I probably have a different destiny. That’s what makes me look so calm and drives my “opponents” mad and they invent all kinds of excuses saying - he must have punched himself in the attempt of self-promotion… Nonsense…
Three in one
What drives the masterminds of this audacious attack especially mad is the fact that I am not just another “quill-driver”, as representatives of the town administration prefer to call me anonymously. First of all, I am a deputy of the town council of three convocations and a political analyst. I am also an investigator, and then a newspaper correspondent.
I have all qualifications required to look into all tricks of the local corruption. I have a Degree in Political Management of the Personnel Management Academy. I am also a Major of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and tax police. Very few journalists have ever become finalists of the Journalists Against Corruption contest.
I act in word and deed, and that makes Nova Kakhovka’s officials feel ill at ease in their comfortable offices. For example, two criminal cases have been opened based on the results of one of my journalistic investigations into activities of the Business Development Foundation – Foundation for ‘Dear Friends’. One of the cases concerns the fact of a deputy of the town council forging documentation.
“Invisible” masterminds and possibilities
While in hospital, not only did I manage to recover physically, but also mentally. It took me just a moment to get rid of the last idealistic illusions and get back to earth. I asked myself this simple question: Who wanted to intimidate, mutilate or even kill me?
The method of exclusion suggested a number of ideas. My journalistic investigations and satirical fable Chronicles of Dark Time did not expose misdeeds of common people – workers or pensioners, in any way. So, they are not likely to have conspired to kill me.
Neither did I write about “merry” life of criminals (except those in the town administration!), prostitutes and drug addicts. I am positive they did not do that as they don’t seem to read newspapers that often.
The range of subjects of my investigations and satirical mockery of the “Aesopian language” of the seditious fable is very small, not more than 10 names. Interestingly, most persons on the “Tsygipa list” have mandates of town council deputies and can boast an honorary rank of a people’s representative. But all of them are now swearing they almost like me. Right…
Each of the gentlemen on my list is also trying to accuse his peers of the crime. It’s not long before they finally sell each other out and citizens of Nova Kakhovka will have a chance to see who is who in the hierarchy of the town administration. They remain “invisible” so far for most common people and absolutely all local law-enforcement agencies.
But that’s exactly why I established the Kakhovsky Platzdarm journalistic investigation bureau – nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest. You, police officials and legal counsels, just wait till the prosecutor general and interior minister of Ukraine see all these materials on their desks.
When lying in a hospital bed, it occurred to me that during the 2004 Orange Revolution in Kyiv, most people had come to Maydan not to support Yushchenko, but to protest against the government abusing all laws and Ukrainian people. People simply grew sick and tired of the role of mute “cattle”. That’s why they came out to Maydan.
What has come out of it and who has used this people’s self-consciousness – that’s quite a different problem. But it was originally a protest against all authorities in Ukraine. As an experienced analyst, I can tell you this – Nova Kakhovka is about to burst out with similar protests. Citizens of Nova Kakhovka might get tired of hypocrisy of the town officials and their “pet” deputies. Bruises on my face might serve as a catalyst of people’s revolt. But I can be wrong, I am just a man, you know…
News paid for
Whether my colleagues like it or not, I am absolutely convinced it is provincial journalists that have to fight corruption first, but not their peers from Kyiv. Just have a look at a sad memorial plate at the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine with the names of killed journalists and you’ll see I am right. Corruption thrives in provincial towns, and only the blind and deaf don’t know about it.
It is in the regions where the notorious “administrative resource” is especially strong. With its assistance, the local officials can do absolutely anything. Take my case – right after the attempt at my life, editors of several newspapers were forced by the town administration to reject my materials. “Look, old man, today they’ve done it to you, tomorrow they’ll do it to me”, some “independent” editors would tell me. What could I say?
What would you call that? “A profession ban”? Though covert, still a ban. But I don’t feel like writing about “glamorous” people and events. And I hate doing what I don’t believe in just to please somebody.
What’s most alarming about this story is silence of some of my colleagues. But for the Vita satellite TV channel, a close partner of our journalistic investigation bureau for the last six months, nobody outside Nova Kakhovka would have found out about it.
Now that I have talked to some media top managers from Kyiv, I am absolutely convinced the only way for an independent journalist to get through to a central TV channel is to get killed. If I had been killed, it would have become great NEWS. But I am alive and thus not wanted. Too many “provincial” journalists seek free self-promotion, they told me. If I am mistaken, then tell me why this scandalous incident has been ignored by all central TV channels and almost all central newspapers with special correspondents in Kherson region.
One of those top managers explained it absolutely clearly to me: “There was no place for ‘your’ news. It cannot compete with the stories paid for”. So, are covert adverts and paid news attacking? And winning? All you see on TV is covert adverts. Are central dailies picking up on the trend? Haven’t you heard of professional solidarity? Or do we have to refer to it as “covert-ad solidarity” now? It’s too sad, my dear colleagues…
That attack makes me consider what has changed about the work of journalists in the state of Ukraine since 2000. Eight long years, politicians have been using the late Georgiy Gongadze as one of their campaign slogans. Personally I believe the situation with press freedom is getting worse and worse in Ukraine. Proved by my broken nose and knocked-out teeth.
By Sergiy Tsygipa, Director of the Kakhovksy Platzdarm investigative journalistic bureau, a deputy of the Nova Kakhovka town council (3rd-5th convocations), author of several books, including Tauric Rock-n-Roll (1992), WHITE SNAKE or A Headless Town (2002), Ukraine: Rush-hour (2005), Kakhovka Base (2006) and Chronicles of Dark Time (a satirical fable, 2008).
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Last comment
 The Ukraine MPs are going to resume an old practice of criminal liability for libel. May 17, the MP Vasyl Kyselyov, who had been elected as a member of the Party of Regions list, has submitted a respective bill at the parliament (Verkhovna Rada). |
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Debate
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Wednesday, 09 June 2010 |
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The first week of June and the last week of May a number of incidents have been reported which are evidence of attempts made by new Administration of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and some representatives of the governing party in the regions to restrict rights and freedoms of the mass media and Ukraine’s citizens. These are alarming attempts of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and, being in his second job, co-owner of the most important TV channel to exert influence on procedure of delivering the authorizations to broadcast for two independent and critical towards authorities TV channels, Channel 5 and TVi. As response to this pressure the journalists have started a campaign “Stop to censorship!”, held the Journalist’s Day. One should remark, the action which involved several prominent journalists from national TV channels has not been even mentioned in the news at these TV channels. These are facts involving pressure by government bodies. |
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