GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION'S DIGEST No. 172 (March 1, 2004)

Ukraine. Reporters Sans Frontieres points to "deterioration" of, and National Democracy Institute (U.S.) "disappointed" by the freedom-of-expression situation in Ukraine, but no one concerned about real threat to Ukrainian press.

By Mark Agatov ,
GDF staff correspondent in Ukraine

Alla Lazareva, head of the Mass Information Institute, a partner of the international human rights organization Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), said in her last week's interview for the Deutche Welle that the freedom-of-expression situation in Ukraine is deteriorating. She said the new RSF report on the media position in Ukraine "will be sadder than the previous one because of the growing incidence of violent attacks on journalists, including beatings and intimidation, and the establishment of increasingly tough control over the Ukrainian press". At the same time, Ms. Lazareva noted that no pre-ordered assassinations of journalists were registered in the republic in 2003, and that no journalists are under arrest or in detention in Ukraine today [which is not an absolutely true statement, to put it mildly - GDF Digest editor].

On February 26, Ukrainian media circulated a statement made by Madeleine Albright, head of the National Democratic Institute and former U.S. secretary of state, on the results of her recent visit to Ukraine. Ms. Albright said she was disappointed by the freedom of expression situation in the republic.

M. Albright attended the international conference "Ukraine and Europe in the World" which was held in Kiev, and met with President L. Kuchma, Ukrainian government officials, and leaders of the nationalistic opposition. She made several statements for the press. For example, she believes the Shevchenko district court in Kiev had no right to close the newspaper Selskiye Vesti for the publication of anti-Semitic materials. Although anti-Semitic materials are unacceptable, there are mechanisms other than a newspaper's closure to prevent their publication, she said. The U.S. guest also spoke out in defense of Radio Liberty which had ceased broadcasting to Ukraine on February 17 because the radio company relaying Liberty's programs had unilaterally terminated the existing cooperation agreement. In Ms. Albright's view, prerequisites have been created in Ukraine on the eve of presidential elections for administrative interference with the work of newspapers, radio studios and TV channels.

Regrettably, no one - except for Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Nina Karpachova - ever once mentioned the major source of threat to the Ukrainian press, namely, Article 277 of the newly-adopted Civil Code of Ukraine stipulating that "any negative information about a person shall be deemed false". According to Ms. Karpachova, "if applied, this article may turn into a noose for freedom of expression in Ukraine".

Nina Karpachova maintains that the new Civil Code article actually outlaws journalistic investigations, because any honest journalistic investigation implies publication of negative information about lawbreakers or criminals. From now on, any official, parliamentarian or businessman dissatisfied with a journalist's performance, upon seeing or hearing his name mentioned by a media outlet, may rush to file a lawsuit against the author to claim huge amounts of moral damage compensation for the publication of "negative", and hence, "false", information about him.

Ms. Karpachova pointed out that Ukraine's Penal Code, too, contains articles that post a threat to the journalists - e.g., Article 182 ("Encroachment Upon a Person's Privacy") envisaging criminal liability for "unlawful gathering, keeping, use or circulation of confidential information about a person without his/her consent, or distribution of such information by means of a public announcement, presentation of a work of art, or publication in the media...". This offense is punishable by up to six-month imprisonment or by restriction of a person's freedom for a term of up to 3 years.

For some strange reason, neither Ukrainian journalists nor their foreign-based "support groups" have been ever heard mentioning those threats...