FOR THE RECORD: Committee to Protect Journalists expresses its concerns to Kuchma (10/08/00)

FOR THE RECORD

Committee to Protect Journalists expresses its concerns to Kuchma

Below is the text of a letter regarding the case of Heorhii Gongadze sent to President Leonid Kuchma by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The letter is dated September 25.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the recent disappearance of Heorhii Gongadze, the 31-year-old editor of the news website Ukrainska Pravda (www.pravda.com.ua). This event has alarmed the journalistic community in Ukraine and further eroded your government's already limited credibility on press-freedom issues.

Gongadze, whose site has often featured critical articles about Ukrainian government officials, disappeared in Kyiv on the evening of Saturday, September 16. Gongadze had left the home of a colleague at 10:20 p.m. to meet his wife and two young children at home. He never arrived.

The police launched an investigation, but so far have turned up no leads. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Parliament has established a special commission to investigate Gongadze's disappearance. According to local sources, there are grounds to suspect that the abduction was related to the editor's professional work.

Shortly after Gongadze disappeared, the deputy director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mykola Dzhyha, announced that authorities were looking into three possible scenarios: that Gongadze planned his own abduction, that he was involved in an accident, or that the abduction was related to Gongadze's journalism.

On September 19, however, Vice Minister for Internal Affaris Mykola Dzhyha announced that the police have ruled out any political motive. Police officials are now suggesting that the disappearance was related to Gongadze's personal life. This conclusion is premature, to say the least.

Gongadze's disappearance follows several suspect or inconclusive investigations into the deaths of local journalists. Sixty local journalists expressed their concern about this trend in a letter sent to Your Excellency and the Ukrainian Parliament on September 19. The letter cited the cases of Kievskie Viedomosti correspondent Petro Shevchenko (found dead hanging from a rope in an abandoned building in Luhansk on March 13, 1997), and murdered Vechernaya Odesa editor Boris Derevianko (shot in the heart and stomach on August 11, 1997).

This year alone two journalists have been beaten after publishing articles about official corruption, according to CPJ research. These cases demonstrate that Ukrainian journalists put their lives at risk when they dare to criticize government officials and other powerful figures. CPJ protested all these attacks in letters to Your Excellency, but has received no reply.

As a non-partisan organization of journalists devoted to defending the rights of our colleagues around the world, CPJ calls on the police to investigate Heorhii Gongadze's disappearance thoroughly, and to release information about the case in a timely manner. We also urge Your Excellency to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of reporters in Ukraine.

Thank you for your attention to these important matters. We await your reply.

Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director

Copies of this letter were sent to: Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Procurator-general of Ukraine Mykhailo Potebenko, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, American Society of Newspaper Editors; Amnesty International, Article 19 (United Kingdom), Artikel 19 (The Netherlands), Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Freedom Forum, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship, International Center for Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, International PEN, International Press Institute, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Harold Hongju Koh, Director Alain Modoux, UNESCO Freedom of Expression Program, The Newspaper Guild, The North American Broadcasters Association, Overseas Press Club, Reporters Sans Frontières, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, The Society of Professional Journalists, World Association of Newspapers and the World Press Freedom Committee.

| Home Page |