Council of Europe reprimands Ukraine on freedom of the press (02/09/03)

Council of Europe reprimands Ukraine on freedom of the press

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Council of Europe reproached Ukrainian state leaders on January 30 for issuing directives to the country's major broadcast outlets on how to address political news.

The reprimand came in recommendations published by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) after it held hearings in Strasbourg, France, on freedom of expression in the media in Europe.

"At this session, PACE directly heard the voice of the journalists," explained Andrii Shevchenko, who heads the recently formed Independent Union of Journalists of Ukraine.

Mr. Shevchenko was part of a delegation of media experts from Ukraine that took part in the special hearing. Other members included National Deputy Mykola Tomenko, the outspoken former head of the parliamentary Committee on Free Press, as well as the standing parliamentary delegation to PACE.

Mr. Shevchenko anchored the evening news for Novyi Kanal, one of Ukraine's largest broadcast networks, before quitting in early September 2002 after expressing his disagreement with management over what he perceived to be state control over how political events were being presented in his news broadcasts.

Speaking in Kyiv after his return from Strasbourg a few days later, Mr. Shevchenko said that the rest of Europe finally received first-hand information on the press situation in Ukraine from members of its mass media and for the first time saw an actual "temnyk."

"Temnyk" is the word coined to describe the anonymous directives that began appearing on the news desks of Ukrainian national broadcast outlets in the second half of 2001 as the parliamentary election season heated up. The directives informed news editors and producers what political events to cover and what to avoid. The political opposition in Ukraine has stated that it had almost no access to Ukrainian television during the run up to the March 2002 parliamentary election because of a state-directed news blackout.

Ukrainian state authorities have repeatedly downplayed the significance of the news directives, calling them either simple press releases or informational materials. They have also sought to reassure PACE that the state has not stifled criticism. State officials have even pursued a campaign in which they have sent articles from Ukrainian newspapers to Strasbourg as examples of how Ukrainian state and government authorities are criticized in the press.

Speaking from Strasbourg, Hanne Severinsen, PACE rapporteur to Ukraine, said that she considered the materials sent by the presidential administration of Ukraine yet another sort of temnyk, done in "a witty way," with the intention of molding PACE opinion. Yet, it is the manner in which the state has brought pressure to bear on the television networks that has been roundly criticized.

During a press conference on February 6, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual referred to the PACE resolutions in noting what Ukraine needs to do in order to strengthen relations with his country. He put guaranteed press freedoms near the top of that list. Mr. Pascual explained that negative comments about state and government officials found in the press are insufficient proof of freedom of expression.

"The Council of Europe is not looking for reports on whether the president or government has been criticized by the news media," explained Mr. Pascual. "They are looking for reports from the members of the media that it is working without interference."

In its assessment on the state of the media in Europe, which PACE released after the special hearing, there was special reference to the issue of press freedoms in Ukraine. In the sixth of 18 points that it accented in the recommendations, the PACE's Committee of Science, Culture and Education noted: "In the [sic] Ukraine, according to numerous journalists and the conclusions of parliamentary hearings on freedom of speech and censorship, the presidential administration provides instructions to the media on the coverage of main political events."

The parliamentary hearings cited were a November session of the Verkhovna Rada that had been demanded by Ukrainian journalists under the threat of a nationwide strike. That session led to a parliamentary resolution condemning limitation of press freedoms in the country.

The PACE report also referred to the unsolved murder of Ukrainian journalist Heorhii Gongadze and called the situation ìunacceptable.".

Mr. Tomenko, who appeared together with Mr. Shevchenko at the press conference in Kyiv, said he believes the decision by PACE to highlight the state's daunting influence on press freedoms in Ukraine would give new impetus to enactment of a law to limit civil liability by members of the media on charges of libel and slander.

Government and state officials have routinely used the current law, which strictly prohibits debasing the honor and dignity of an individual, to dampen unfavorable expressions in the media with the threat of large financial penalties levied against journalists and media outlets.

"This trip gives us reason to be optimistic about future decisions of the Verkhovna Rada," explained Mr. Tomenko. "This draft law has a real chance to be discussed and approved."

The bill as proposed would not give state and government officials at the local or national levels legal remedy against news media it believes to have defamed them, unless they could prove that the slander or libel was malicious in intent. It would also ban defamation lawsuits by political personages in reaction to aired or published commentaries critical of them.

The bill would generally prohibit any sort of political censorship as well as allow the mass media to publish information held outside of the public domain, even if it proved later to be incorrect, if its intent was the public good and its release was done with the perception that the material was valid.

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