GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION'S DIGEST No. 177 (April 5, 2004)

Ukraine - Autonomous Crimean Republic. Newspaper Krymskaya Pravda to sue Crimean Premier Sergey Kunitsyn for publicly accusing journalists of fanning interethnic strife.

By Mark Agatov,
GDF staff correspondent
in Ukraine and Crimea.

Sergey Kunitsyn, prime minister of the Autonomous Crimean Republic (ACR), is known to have won the latest election to the Crimean parliament due to the support of the so-called Crimean Tartars' Medjlis. That explains his very loyal attitude to this unregistered public organization. After Medjlis activists beat up the cameramen of Russia's Channel One and Ukraine's Inter television companies, Mr. Kunitsyn attempted to justify the actions of the provocation's organizers.

When two republican newspapers, Krymskaya Pravda and Krymskoye Vremya, censured the premier's stand on the conflict, Kunitsyn retaliated by accusing the journalists of attempts to fan interethnic strife on the Crimean Peninsula.

In his recent address to an extraordinary meeting of the Crimean Supreme Council, deputy speaker Ilmi Umerov said that "many media outlets, especially the newspapers Krymskaya Pravda and Krymskoye Vremya, instead of providing unbiased coverage of events, have tried to manipulate public opinion and fan interethnic differences. That has nothing whatever to do with freedom of expression". Mr. Umerov then urged the law-enforcement agencies to take a closer look at the two newspapers' performance, which idea was actively supported by premier Sergey Kunitsyn.

In the March 31 article "Search for 'Third Force' Reduced to Charges Against Fourth Branch", the editors of Krymskaya Pravda announced their intention to sue Mr. Kunitsyn for the brazen lies he voiced from the parliamentary rostrum. Krymskoye Vremya's journalists are now considering the prospects for filing a similar lawsuit against the Crimean premier.