Ukraine

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed alarm at attempts by the Ukrainian secret police (SBU, the former KGB) to take control of Internet operations in the country and intercept e-mail messages. “In a country where the media is already monitored closely, the Internet has now become a key target for the SBU,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the ransacking of “Moloda Galychyna” newspaper’s offices on 3 October 2003. The organisation said it was “extremely concerned” about the violence involved and called on the authorities to keep it informed of the results of the investigation. A half dozen men broke into the premises of the paper, which is […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF deplores the failure of the Ukrainian authorities to solve the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze, editor of the online newspaper www.pravda.com.ua, who disappeared on 16 September 2000. “After three years of investigation and despite your repeated announcements that the case was about to be resolved, no significant evidence has been produced to […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned a Council of Europe report on the murder of Ukrainian political journalist Georgy Gongadze as a “whitewash” and a “stab in the back” for his family. Independent expert Hans Christian Krüger had investigated whether the authorities were professionally and properly conducting the inquiry into the killing of Gongadze, editor of […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced concern over a violent attack on Edouard Malinivsky, of the online newspaper “Ostriv”. The second online journalist to be assaulted in less than a month, Malinivsky was accosted by thugs on 12 August 2003 as he left a cafe in the eastern town of Donetsk, at about 11:00 p.m. (local […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ media release: IFJ Raises Alert Over Suspicious Attack on Journalist in Ukraine The International Federation of Journalists today called on the Ukrainian government to investigate an attack against a local journalist in Kiev last week, and to establish whether or not the attack was connected to his professional […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the Ukrainian government to thoroughly investigate the cause of a road accident on 14 July 2003 in which newspaper and television editor Vladimir Efremov, a critic of President Leonid Kuchma, was killed. Efremov, a correspondent for the press freedom organisation Institute of Mass Information (IMI) in the city of […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ media release: IFJ Condemns Attack on Journalists’ Secrecy Rights in Ukraine The International Federation of Journalists today condemned the Ukrainian Parliament’s decision to outlaw the protection of sources of journalists as “one of the greatest threats on press freedom in the post-Soviet era.” On 9 July, the Ukrainian […]

(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI letter to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma: H.E. Leonid Kuchma President 252005 Kiev Ukraine Fax: 00380-44-293-7364/291-6161/293-1001 Vienna, 27 June 2003 Your Excellency, The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives, and leading journalists in over 115 countries, condemns the decision of the Ukrainian government to […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 7 May 2003 CPJ press release: UKRAINE: Local prosecutor in Gongadze case convicted and amnestied New York, May 7, 2003-The Shevchenko District Court in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, yesterday convicted and then amnestied Serhy Obozov, the former prosecutor of Tarashcha District, for obstructing the criminal inquiry into the September 2000 […]

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 information note: ARTICLE 19 releases statement on draft Ukrainian Law on the Insertion of Changes to Certain Laws of Ukraine (ARTICLE 19, Kiev) – ARTICLE 19’s Statement on the draft Law of Ukraine on the Insertion of Changes to Certain Laws of Ukraine as a Result […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ media release: IFJ Report Calls for Unity to Face Climate of Fear and Corruption in Ukraine Media The International Federation of Journalists today issued a report on the media crisis in the Ukraine that calls for unity among journalists to combat “fear, corruption and governmental interference” in journalism. […]

(HRW/IFEX) – The following is a 17 March 2003 Human Rights Watch press release: Ukraine: Informal Political Censorship (New York, March 17, 2003) – The Presidential Administration of Ukraine blatantly violates freedom of expression through explicit instructions on how television stations may cover the news, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today that […]

(RSF/IFEX) – An independent team of experts from the Institute of Criminal Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland, has established that the body found in a forest near Kiev on 2 November 2000 is almost certainly that of disappeared journalist Georgiy Gongadze, RSF and the Mass Media Institute announced at a joint press conference on 11 March […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 19 February 2003 CPJ press release: UKRAINE: CPJ concerned about alleged death threat against editor New York, February 19, 2003-Vira Kytaihorodska, editor-in-chief of the twice-weekly newspaper Bukovynske Viche in the western city of Chernivtsi, said that a local government official has threatened to kill her for republishing an article […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 12 February 2003, RSF called for new forensic tests in the death of journalist Mikhailo Kolomiets. The journalist’s body was found hanging from a tree in October 2002. The organisation said it was still not clear whether he was murdered. French pathologist Jean Rivolet took part in an autopsy in Ukraine from […]