(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly troubled by the government’s recent attempts to censor four opposition newspapers prior to the 31 October 1999 presidential elections. In four apparently separate incidents on 13 to 15 October, local printing houses in the cities of Kryviy Rih and Luhansk, under pressure from authorities, refused to print four newspapers that […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is greatly troubled by the government’s recent attempts to
censor four opposition newspapers prior to the 31 October 1999 presidential
elections.
In four apparently separate incidents on 13 to 15 October, local printing
houses in the cities of Kryviy Rih and Luhansk, under pressure from
authorities, refused to print four newspapers that have endorsed President
Kuchma’s political rivals for the presidency.
In one case, a printing company in Luhansk refused to print the 15 October
edition of the popular “XXI Vek” newspaper after its editor Yuri Yurov
declined to pull a front page photo of candidate Yevhen Marchuk and several
articles critical of President Kuchma’s administration.
Two other Luhansk newspapers, “Rakurs” and “Nashe Zavtra”, were also unable
to publish that week. Both newspapers have endorsed Oleksander Moroz in the
presidential race. The Donetsk company that normally prints “Rakurs” claimed
it was experiencing technical problems. Mykola Severin, the paper’s editor,
tried to hire the printer that publishes “Nashe Zavtra”. But he found that
tax inspectors had just shut down the printing house, blocking the
publication of both papers.
On 15 October, employees at the city-owned printing house in Kryviy Rih told
the editors of “Kryvoi Rog Vecherny” that they were breaking their contract
to print the paper. (“Kryvoi Rog Vecherny” has also endorsed Moroz in the
presidential race.) The employees claimed to have acted at the request of
the Askon company, which owns the paper. “Kryvoi Rog Vecherny”‘s editors
believe the publisher was pressured to submit this request after the paper
experienced a series of politically motivated attacks.
The attacks on “Kryvoi Rog Vecherny” began after authorities accused one of
Moroz’s aides of plotting a grenade attack on a rival presidential
candidate, Natalia Vitrenko. Beginning on 2 October, Ukraine officials
subjected the paper to a series of hostile tax audits. On the night
following the grenade attack, police ransacked the offices of “Kryvoi Rog
Vecherny” and detained one of its editors, Inna Chyrchenko. Chyrchenko was
released after 17 hours of interrogation about the paper’s ties with Moroz
and his aide, Serhiy Ivanchenko. More reprisals followed after the paper ran
a 14 October article that criticized the government’s case against
Ivanchenko as circumstantial and politically motivated.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
newspapers
for their editorial positions
flagrant
efforts to silence opposition news media, particularly during the runup to
the 31 October presidential election
the last several years has
fostered a climate of fear and self censorship in which no genuinely
independent news media can survive
uphold his government’s international obligations to respect the rights of
journalists to practice their profession freely and safely
Appeals To
His Excellency Leonid Kuchma
President of Ukraine
vul. Bankivska 11
Kyiv, Ukraine
Fax: +380 44 293 7364 / 291 6161 / 293 1001
E-mail: postmaster@ribbon.kiev.ua
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
