President decrees moratorium on inspections of news media (03/21/04)

President decrees moratorium on inspections of news media

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma issued a decree on March 15 that placed a moratorium on any sort of government inspections of mass media outlets in Ukraine.

The same day a delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) announced in Kyiv that their visit was the beginning of comprehensive monitoring of the presidential election campaign season in Ukraine.

The national vote, scheduled for October 31, has already caused an international stir after several media outlets were forced to shut down in Kyiv in the last months, two by order of Ukrainian courts. In addition, a U.S.-sponsored radio news agency, Radio Liberty, was taken off the air twice in the same time period, directly affected by the changes made in the status of two Kyiv radio stations. Also, Channel 5, a nationwide Ukrainian television network, has alleged that tax police have harassed it recently and that its signal has been tampered with.

The presidential decree bans inspections of print, radio and television media outlets by the State Tax Administration, the Procurator General's Office, the Internal Ministry and the Emergency Situations Ministry until after the October 31 vote.

Ivan Chyzh, chairman of the State Committee on Radio and Television Broadcasting, on March 17 told a special gathering of representatives of the foreign diplomatic corps in Kyiv, invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address international concerns about a "reduced radio and television broadcast space in Ukraine," that state and government officials were working to make mass media "clear, open and accessible to all."

"Evidence of the fact that we are moving in the right direction is the decree by the president of Ukraine, supported today by the Verkhovna Rada," explained Mr. Chyzh.

Mr. Chyzh had called for a government ban on inspections of the mass media by state agencies on March 12, after the Verkhovna Rada had rejected a bill on the same matter. After President Kuchma issued his decree, the Parliament fell into line quickly, overwhelmingly supporting a similar resolution on March 16.

U.S. diplomats meeting with Polish and Ukrainian officials in Warsaw to discuss trilateral relations among the countries reacted positively to the news. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Steven Pifer said that such a move would help to create the needed conditions for free and fair elections.

"It's super. It's a very good thing since it reduces some of the pressure that we've seen on independent media in the last several months," explained Mr. Pifer during a video press conference from Warsaw with reporters at the U.S. Embassy's Public Affairs Section in Kyiv.

However, Canadian Ambassador Andrew Robinson, speaking during the meeting at the Foreign Affairs Ministry said that, while he was satisfied with the moratorium, it did not resolve the problems surrounding the shutdown of certain radio stations. Mr. Robinson explained that he was particularly concerned that no official had mentioned restoring the radio transmissions of Radio Liberty, BBC, Voice of America or Deutsche Welle in Kyiv.

The four international news services, financed by their respective countries, had gone off standard broadcast frequencies when on March 3 government workers closed Radio Kontynent and confiscated its transmission equipment. Radio Kontynent had aired the news programs of all four media outlets.

"I was hoping to hear of some initiative by the organs of government to assure that the broadcast service would be continued in other ways," explained Ambassador Robinson. "I can assure you that all friends of Ukraine are concerned when residents of Kyiv have to go back to the practice of listening to short wave to get information from the West."

Borys Kholod, chairman of the National Council of Radio and Television Broadcasting, responded to the Canadian ambassador's assertion by noting that since 2002 there had been an unofficial agreement with the U.S. Embassy that U.S. public news services and other international media services could use Radio Onyx, another Kyiv frequency, to broadcast their news programs, but no foreign radio news service had followed through. He also noted that the removal of Radio Kontynent did not leave Ukraine void of foreign radio news broadcasts.

"BBC is broadcast in eight regions [of Ukraine], Radio Liberty works in Ternopil and Symferopol, and Voice of America operates in five regions," explained Mr. Kholod.

OSCE begins monitoring campaign

The same day that President Kuchma issued the moratorium on government inspections of the news media, a delegation from the OSCE announced that it had begun its pre-election monitoring of the presidential vote.

"Everyone is concerned about what path Ukraine chooses," explained Tone Tingsgard, the Swedish head of the delegation during a press conference on March 15. She added that she hoped Ukraine could understand that the role of OSCE observers and monitoring was to "aid" in the elections.

The delegation also met with the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksander Lytvyn. Mr. Lytvyn's press secretary, Ihor Storozhuk, told journalists that during the meeting the Rada chairman noted that Ukraine would remain open on all matters, especially as regards the elections.

"The Verkhovna Rada will be one of the guarantors that the elections will be transparent and democratic, more so because the principal political powers that will put forward candidates are all represented in the Ukrainian Parliament," explained Mr. Lytvyn.

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