GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION'S DIGEST No. 204 (November 9, 2004)

Ukraine — Autonomous Crimean Republic. "Russkiy Reporter" becomes Crimea's first human rights newspaper to publish GDF materials.

By Mark Agatov,
GDF staff correspondent in Ukraine and Autonomous Crimean Republic

Nadezhda Polyakova, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Russkiy Reporter and member of the Journalists' Union of Russia, has begun, in cooperation with the GDF office in Ukraine, to publish thematic pages dedicated to the defense of journalists' rights. The front page of RR, a newspaper with a circulation of 30,000, features GDF materials and photo pictures describing various problems facing the media today, including judicial case studies and reports about the persecution of journalists in the Crimea and Ukraine.

The section "Legal Defense Service" prepared by lawyers from the human rights organization "Yustis" enjoys considerable popularity. Experienced lawyers explain to the readers details of Ukrainian legislation; give recommendations on how to correctly prepare documents for efficient defense in court; provide the addresses of the Office of Ukraine's Prosecutor General, the Supreme Rada's Legal Policy Committee, the Human Rights Ombudsman, etc.

According to Ms. Polyakova, it is the deplorable human rights situation that caused her to change the profile of her newspaper. "People suffer from bureaucratic and police arbitrariness; their attempts to tell the truth are vigorously suppressed by the law enforcers," she said. "I felt this on my own skin when the police put me under surveillance after the newspaper Zhitukha published a series of my reports about the persecution and severe beatings of the prominent Crimean human rights activist Konstantin Sizarev. Besides, the city police chiefs claimed 100,000 grivnas (USD 20,000) from me in moral damage compensation. It was only due to the GDF publications about brazenly lawless official practices in the Crimea that my newspaper escaped immediate closure and I was not arrested. I believe by keeping the public informed about the violations of journalists' rights we will be able to persuade government officials, police officers and judges to show more respect for Ukrainian legislation and human rights."

Joint GDF-RR reports about the defense of media rights will also be available on the Internet at http://www.compromat-crimea.kiev.ua