NEWSBRIEFS (05/11/03)

NEWSBRIEFS

Putin, Kuchma agree on range of issues

YALTA, Ukraine - President Vladimir Putin wound up his five-day visit to Yalta, Crimea, on May 4, having reached agreement with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on "a wide range of issues," Kommersant-Daily reported on the next day. Mr. Putin reiterated Russia's desire to reach an agreement with Ukraine and Germany to repair Ukraine's gas-pipeline system and thereby expand its capacity to export Russian natural gas to Western Europe, Interfax reported on May 2. He also spoke in favor of continuing joint production with Ukraine of the AN-70 transport plane, saying Russia has already invested "quite a bit" in the project and wants to see it through. Izvestia reported on April 26 that Russian military officials are "categorically against" the project. The two presidents discussed relations with the European Union and their two countries' prospects for entering the World Trade Organization (WTO). Mr. Kuchma, noting that Ukraine's bid for WTO membership is not going as well as he had hoped, called for greater coordination between Moscow and Kyiv in moving toward WTO membership, Kommersant-Daily reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... listed as violators of press freedom

PARIS - Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine made this year's "Predators of Press Freedom" list, issued by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, Kommersant-Daily reported on May 5. The list, which was released on May 3 to coincide with World Press Freedom Day, includes 42 heads of state. In explaining Mr. Putin's inclusion, the group said he has used the pretext of the fight against terrorism to prevent journalists from reporting truthful and objective information and that some Russian media have been punished for broadcasting the operation to free hostages at a Moscow theater last October. The group also noted that the Kremlin controls Russia's main electronic media. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Freedom House notes repression of press

NEW YORK - Freedom House, a New York-based non-governmental organization, singled out Russia and Ukraine as violators in its annual report on press freedom, released this year on April 30. The Russian government, it said, has shut down leading independent broadcasters, while Ukrainian and Russian reporters who investigate official corruption "were routinely intimidated and sometimes violently attacked." Three journalists in Russia were killed, Freedom House noted, and downgraded Russia's overall rating from "partly free" to "not free." (RFE/RL Newsline)

CPJ gives Russia poor marks

NEW YORK - The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists named Chechnya as one of the 10 worst places in the world to be a journalist, noting that Russian policies have accomplished "the government's goal of preventing journalists from reporting on the [Chechen] war's devastation" (see http://www.cpj.org). Reporters Without Borders likewise cited the dangers of reporting in and around Chechnya. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin pushes CIS-EU economic space

MOSCOW - During his visit to Ukraine on April 30-May 4, President Vladimir Putin commented on issues that were not strictly bilateral, Russian news media reported. He said he is satisfied with efforts to create a "single economic space" on the basis of the "quartet" of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakstan, Interfax reported on May 2. Mr. Putin also called on the Commonwealth of Independent States to work on creating a "single economic space" with the European Union, adding that this will be discussed at the Russia-EU summit set for May 31 in St. Petersburg, to which the CIS leaders have been invited, vesti.ru reported on May 4. Mr. Putin also said that the international community should quickly reach a consensus on rebuilding Iraq, Interfax reported on May 2. Russia "did not stand on one side or the other - we were not for the winners or the losers" in the Iraq conflict, Mr. Putin added. Iraq's debts, he reiterated, should be discussed on the basis of the Paris Club of international creditors, Interfax reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Report says press freedom lacking ...

NEW YORK - Freedom House, a U.S.-based organization whose stated aim is to support global democracy, released its "Freedom of the Press 2003" report on April 30, noting that press freedom "suffered notable worldwide deterioration in 2002, due in part to political and armed conflicts and increased government-backed restrictions on independent media outlets," according to the group's website (http://www.freedomhouse.org). The conclusions include classification of countries' media as "free" (0-30 points), "partly free" (31-60 points) or "not free" (61-100 points). "Of the 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, nine (33 percent) are rated free, eight (30 percent) are partly free, and 10 (37 percent) are not free," the group said. Ratings in Central and Eastern Europe, listed alphabetically, are: Belarus (82), Czech Republic (23), Estonia (17), Hungary (23), Latvia (18), Lithuania (18), Poland (18), Slovakia (21) and Ukraine (67). (RFE/RL Newsline)

... press freedom in Ukraine declines

NEW YORK - Freedom House named Ukraine among 11 countries in which ratings dropped from the "partly free" to "not free," according to a copy of the report on the group's website. "Among the most serious developments were major setbacks for press freedom in Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela," the group noted in a press release accompanying the survey. Freedom House said several Ukrainian journalists were targeted by politically motivated libel lawsuits or punitive tax audits last year. "Russian and Ukrainian reporters who investigated official corruption were routinely intimidated and sometimes violently attacked," the group said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rallies held to mark May Day

KYIV - Some 3,000 people took part in a May Day rally organized by the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine and the Sobor Party on European Square in the capital, the UNIAN news service reported. Speakers at the Kyiv rally called for the rejection of President Leonid Kuchma's proposals for political reform and emphasized the need for joint opposition efforts to secure victory in the next presidential election. Some 500,000 Ukrainians reportedly took part in May Day demonstrations and festivities organized throughout the country, with the highest attendance reported in Donetsk (53,000), Dnipropetrovsk (16,000), and Symferopol (12,000). (RFE/RL Newsline)

Diaspora targets Pulitzer-prize winner

WASHINGTON - The Ukrainian diaspora on May 1 launched a campaign aimed at seeing the late U.S. journalist Walter Duranty stripped of his 1932 Pulitzer Prize, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported. Duranty, then a correspondent for The New York Times, received his prize for a series of articles he published in 1931 on Stalin's plans to reform the Soviet economy. Duranty subsequently maintained silence in his writings about the man-made famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933, in which up to 10 million people died. "[Duranty] completely ignored the Ukrainian famine; he even went as far as to lie that there was no famine, there was no genocide of the Ukrainian people," Ukrainian Congress Committee of America President Michael Sawkiw Jr. told RFE/RL. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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