(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is concerned about growing media harassment ahead of the second round of presidential elections on 21 November 2004, which has included assaults, sackings and the denial of access to information. There has so far been totally biased media coverage of the campaign, pitting Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych against his opposition rival Victor […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is concerned about growing media harassment ahead of the second round of presidential elections on 21 November 2004, which has included assaults, sackings and the denial of access to information.
There has so far been totally biased media coverage of the campaign, pitting Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych against his opposition rival Victor Yuschenko. “Almost every method is being used to prevent complete and full coverage of the campaign,” RSF said.
Many journalists continue to protest the authorities’ systematic use of “temnyks” – instructions to editorial offices as to how certain subjects should be handled.
On the evening of 15 November, during a televised debate between the candidates, about 30 journalists from the leading television stations demonstrated outside the studios of public television station UT-1 and private television station 1+1, protesting government obstacles to the media’s work. Some of the demonstrators tied their hands together with paper chains made out of temnyks.
On 3 November, television news presenter Volodymyr Holosnyak, of UT-1 station, was sacked for refusing to read a temnyk ahead of a televised debate in which Yanukovych was taking part. The journalist insisted that he should also read a statement on the conditions sought by Yuschenko to take part in the debate.
There have also been several recent assaults on opposition supporters and journalists. On 3 November, Enver Musayev, of the weekly “Holos Kryma”, was physically assaulted, and his colleagues were threatened in Simferopol, the regional capital of Crimea. Three individuals approached the journalist’s vehicle, dragged Musavev out and struck him. Eldar Seidbekirov, the editor-in-chief of the weekly who witnessed the assault, said that one of the assailants wore a lieutenant-colonel’s uniform.
On 31 October, the eve of the first round of presidential elections, Serghiy Skorobohatko, a journalist from Kanal 5, the main opposition television station, was assaulted at a polling station by assailants who also took his camera.
The 17 November issue of the opposition daily “Silski Visti”, which carried an interview with Yuschenko, could not be sent to subscribers because the copies were stuck at the depot owned by the distributor, Pressa Ukrayiny, a subsidiary of the public post office.
On the same day, unidentified visitors turned up at the newspaper’s office and gave “advice” about the most appropriate way to cover the election campaign. “Silski Visti” was finally distributed to its subscribers at about 3:00 p.m. (local time) on 17 November, after the paper demanded that Parliament intervene.
The daily has suffered mounting harassment since its owner, Alexandre Moroz, gave his backing to Yuschenko. As a result, a large number of readers, particularly in southern Ukraine, no longer receive delivery of the paper. The local post offices has come up with a range of excuses to explain the situation.
“Silski Visti” editor-in-chief Vasyl Hruzin said the problems were solely due to the daily’s political line. He said there had also been attempts at censorship of the paper.
On 12 November, the public post office in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, refused to send the independent weekly “Svoboda” to several thousand subscribers in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, Kharkov and Crimea areas. The post office’s regional director, Mykola Dremov, informed the weekly’s editor-in-chief, Mykhailo Khalandski, that a court in Donetsk had banned its distribution but refused to produce a copy of the ruling.