ANALYSIS: The Internet: Ukraine's new samvydav (01/13/02)

ANALYSIS

The Internet: Ukraine's new samvydav

by Taras Kuzio
RFE/RL Media Matters

The rapid growth of the Internet in Ukraine had largely escaped the authorities' attention until the December 6, 2001, presidential decree that finally sought to rein in one of the country's last remaining independent media outlets. The Internet had become "the most mobile medium and the least vulnerable to censorship," according to the prestigious weekly "Zerkalo Nedeli/Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.

Internet use in Ukraine has increased fivefold since 1999. From 2000 to 2001, it jumped by 30 to 40 percent. In recent years, computer prices have dropped, since 85 percent of all computers sold in Ukraine are now assembled domestically. Approximately 400,000 personal computers were sold in 2001 (an annual increase of 22 to 25 percent) plus 10,000 computer notebooks (an annual increase of 60 percent). Due to increased competition among Ukraine's 260 Internet service providers - which also increased their revenues through higher volume of Internet advertisements - the cost of Internet connection has dropped dramatically. Add to that cheap pirated software and cheaper computers. All in all, the Internet is more affordable and accessible in Ukraine.

Not surprisingly, Internet usage is most frequent in large cities, particularly Kyiv, which accounts for half of the Internet use, and eastern Ukraine. Lviv represents the only relatively large Internet use in the western part of the country. Rural areas and small towns suffer from more frequent electricity cuts, fewer computer terminals and worse telecommunications infrastructures. Of the 18,301 websites registered in Ukraine as of April 2001, 5,772 were in Kyiv, followed by Odesa (1,309), Dnipropetrovsk (901), Kharkiv (722) and Donetsk (550).

The fact that the Security Service of Ukraine (Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrainy, or SBU) has recently hired 3,000 computer experts is proof of official concern about the expansion of a medium they do not control. The authorities not only feared a new technology they did not fully understand, but also were concerned at Internet use to promote opposition political parties and to expose official misdeeds. Students and young people - among whom English is the most popular foreign language - are increasingly relying on the Internet to conduct research as well as to read the Western media.

President Leonid Kuchma was alarmed that during 1999-2001 the Internet became a key forum for opposition to the executive branch of government. As independent print outlets were increasingly stifled, the Internet was "performing the role that samvydav [samizdat] did in the 1960s in the USSR," the newspaper Ukraina Moloda wrote last year.

Until the "Kuchmagate" scandal of November 2000, authorities were unperturbed by the Internet because its audience was limited, compared to the broadcast and print media controlled by them and their oligarch allies. Only in 2001 did the executive branch of the Ukrainian government establish its own website (www.kuchma.gov.ua).

The main Internet site to seize on the "Kuchmagate" scandal was Ukrainska Pravda launched on April 17, 2000, by Heorhii Gongadze and its current editor, Olena Prytula - five months before Mr. Gongadze's still-unsolved murder. The "Kuchmagate" scandal led to public demands for prompt and unbiased information. This is reflected in visits to the Ukrainska Pravda site, which increased from 3,000 per day to 80,000 during the December 2000 parliamentary deliberations over the scandal - exceeding the circulation figures for the pro-presidential hard-copy newspapers, such as Kievskie Viedomosti.

The authorities were also concerned that the Internet allegedly provided a negative image of Ukraine to the outside world. During the "Kuchmagate" scandal, Ukraine's international image drastically worsened. But the authorities, by blaming the Internet for highlighting their misdeeds, show they do not understand the media's role as the "fourth estate" in a democratic society. For example, President Kuchma recently complained that the Internet was a "killer" because it was always pouring out "dirt" through "anonymous information."

Reflecting such official concerns, in 2001 a special Internet Administration was set up within the State Committee for Information Policy, Television and Radio. The SBU is also attempting to take over control of the ".ua" (the Ukraine Internet country code since 1992) domain-name registration. This ".ua" system is controlled by a San Francisco-based networks administrator, Dmytro Kohmaniuk, through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). On October 31, 2001, the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) passed a resolution "On Methods to Improve State Information Policy and Ensure Ukraine's Information Security." This was followed by a November 12, 2001 meeting with Internet journalists where Yevhen Marchuk, NSDC secretary and former Ukrainian KGB and SBU chairman, complained that the Internet constituted a threat to Ukrainian national security due to its large volume of compromising material. Mr. Marchuk said, "the state cannot ignore a new developing phenomenon, to just stand by and have no influence on it." A presidential decree dated December 6, 2001 implemented the October 31 resolution, which in turn followed an earlier Internet decree dated July 31, 2000, and five previous "information policy" decrees in July 1997; April, July and December 2000; and April 2001.

The December 6, 2001, decree ordered the Cabinet of Ministers to undertake a range of detailed measures within one-, two-, three-, six- and eight-month deadlines. Within one month, the Cabinet was to draw up a draft law on a "National Information Policy Concept and Ukraine's Information Security." A more detailed licensing procedure for Internet service providers was to be introduced, requiring that they retain copies of Internet traffic for six months. It is disturbing to note the SBU role in the licensing of Internet providers and potential SBU access to Internet traffic in the "interests of national security." The SBU was instructed also to come up with proposals to improve its work against "information aggression and specialist information-propagandistic operations" undertaken by foreign intelligence services.

A recent example of how the SBU may deploy the notion that the Internet constitutes a national security "threat" was its November 26, 2001, house search of Oleh Yeltsov, editor of the Ukraina Kriminalnaya (www.cripo.com.ua) website. The court order that sanctioned the SBU action alleged that it was being undertaken in order to "prevent the release of confidential information." After the search, Mr. Yeltsov's computer was disabled. The reason the SBU undertook this action is probably because Mr. Yeltsov's website had recently begun to include translations from the RFE/RL Crime, Corruption and Terrorism Watch. The SBU seems to be oblivious to the fact that the Internet does not respect state frontiers. If the Kriminalnaya Ukraina website is shut down, Ukrainian surfers can simply go to www.rferl.org to obtain the information.

Various Western organizations, such as Freedom House and Reporters without Borders, have chronicled the deteriorating media situation in Ukraine since the late 1990s. In 1999 and 2001, the Committee to Protect Journalists placed President Kuchma among the world's top 10 "Enemies of the Press." As the authorities attempt to exert control over the Internet, Ukraine's reputation as a country with a poor record on media freedom is now likely to further worsen.

Taras Kuzio is a research associate at the Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto.

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