Thousands rally in Kyiv for freedom of the press (03/14/04)

Thousands rally in Kyiv for freedom of the press

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - National Deputy Yulia Tymoshenko exhorted thousands of Ukrainians on March 9 to rise in massive civil disobedience in response to efforts by state authorities to shackle press freedoms by closing down mass media outlets that do not toe the government political line.

Fellow lawmaker Viktor Yushchenko told the throng of 10,000 to 15,000 who had gathered to commemorate the 190th birthday of Ukraine's national bard, Taras Shevchenko, that the Ukrainian political leadership was slowly achieving its aim of a controlled and cowering press.

"It is a shame that leading these columns were journalists whose mouths were taped shut," stated Mr. Yushchenko.

He was referring to dozens of journalists who led the demonstrators and carried signs that read: "Keep Your Hands Off the Independent Media" and "Kuchma Out!" - the latter now a traditional chant at any anti-government rally.

The demonstration and rally began at St. Michael's Square, where supporters of Oleksander Moroz and his Socialist Party gathered before proceeding down Volodymyrska Street, picking up columns of protesters from the Our Ukraine bloc, which Mr. Yushchenko leads, and the Tymoshenko Bloc, and then moving to Shevchenko Park for a rally.

Mass protest by the opposition has become an annual tradition on this day over the last three years as thousands have marched through the downtown streets of Kyiv calling for democracy and free speech in the country and the resignation of President Leonid Kuchma.

In 2001 the protests ended in violence, and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd after state militia and protesters battled near the Presidential Administration Building. Thousands of demonstrators had roamed the city center throughout the day confronting and combating police. Dozens of police and civilians were injured.

While the demonstrations have remained peaceful for the last two years, this year they took on renewed urgency after a second recent effort by government representatives to limit Radio Liberty (RL) broadcasts to Ukraine.

On March 3 Ukrainian government representatives unexpectedly and without a court order removed the transmitting equipment of Radio Kontynent, claiming the radio station had been transmitting without a proper license. The move came only five days after Radio Liberty, a U.S.-financed, private radio broadcasting, had moved to that radio station.

Earlier, Radio Dovira, another Kyiv radio station, had canceled its relationship with RL, blaming the broadcaster for failing to make format changes as had been demanded by Radio Dovira owners. RL officials have said they were never told what changes the station wanted to see.

Other Western media organizations, including Voice of America, the BBC and Deutsche Welle had also used Radio Kontynent for their transmissions. They, too, went off the air on March 3.

The opposition demonstrations also followed the death in a car crash of the director of a Poltava regional radio station, which occurred the same day that Radio Kontynent's transmissions were pulled. Yurii Chechyk of Yuta Radio had been on his way to Kyiv for talks with Radio Liberty executives on providing them with airtime on his radio station when his car and an oncoming vehicle collided outside Kyiv. The driver of the other vehicle lost a leg in the incident, and a second passenger was hospitalized.

Many in the opposition movement, while acknowledging that there was no concrete evidence suggesting that Mr. Chechyk's death was planned, cited a pattern of "death by automobile accident" of several political and press representatives over the years, including prominent Rukh leader Vyacheslav Chornovil. They are demanding an independent investigation.

The two incidents provoked a string of harsh criticisms from various Western governments and non-governmental organizations over the last week.

The U.S. Department of State harshly criticized the closing of Radio Kontynent in a statement released on March 4.

"The shutdown of Radio Kontynent and silencing of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, VOA and other international news broadcasters is an assault on democracy and is a serious concern in an election year in Ukraine when the need for news from many sources is greatest," said Richard Boucher, spokesman for the U.S. State Department.

The statement called for the "Ukrainian leadership to act immediately to allow Radio Kontynent to resume broadcasting and to refrain from erecting further obstacles to the rebroadcast of international radio broadcasts in Ukraine."

Reporters Without Borders, the international media watch dog and human rights group, on March 5 called on Ukrainian authorities to allow broadcasts by Radio Kontynent until the licensing matter was brought before the European Court of Human Rights.

Then, on March 8, the U.S. Department of State released a second statement, this one issued by Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman of the department's Bureau of Public Affairs, in which he called for an official investigation into Mr. Chechyk's death.

On March 10 the Ukrainian Service of the BBC reported that the European Union was preparing a statement critical of the manner in which the press is treated in Ukraine. The report stated that the EU was awaiting approval of the wording from the 15 member-states and the 10 additional countries that would join in May.

On March 9 Markian Lubkivskyi, spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Ukrainian government officials were still studying the statements issued by the United States.

"Knowing that the U.S. has concerns on a wide range of sensitive issues, the Foreign Ministry has decided to react calmly to the statements," Mr. Lubkivsky said. He explained that Foreign Affairs Minister Kostyantyn Gryschenko had met with U.S. Ambassador John Herbst to discuss the two matters.

The shutdown of Radio Kontynent, which had long been in disfavor with government authorities over its oppositionist political stance, follows a pattern that has emerged in Ukraine over the last months. Several large media outlets have been forcefully shutdown or threatened with closure, including the country's largest newspaper, Silski Visti, which was closed after it printed what a Kyiv court decided were anti-Semitic materials. Meanwhile, Channel 5 Television, opened less than a year ago and owned by one of Mr. Yushchenko's closest advisors, National Deputy Petro Poroshenko, has said that its broadcast signal had been tampered with in the past and that it is under the close scrutiny of Ukraine's tax police.

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