ANALYSIS

Ukrainian opposition website, Ukrainska Pravda, sued for libel

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report

The Internet publication Ukrainska Pravda (http://www2.pravda.com.ua/) has been sued for libel. The plaintiffs are Valerii Vorotnik, the editor of the Cherkasy-based newspaper Antena, and Maria Sambur, a former lawyer of the Institute of Mass Information (IMI). The Ukrainska Pravda website has dubbed Messrs. Vorotnik and Sambur "agents of [presidential-administration chief Viktor] Medvedchuk in the media sphere."

Ukrainska Pravda is an outspoken and trenchant critic of the Ukrainian president and government. The website has become a major opposition media outlet following the abduction and murder of its first editor-in-chief, Heorhii Gongadze, in 2000. Thus far, the authorities have not tried to hinder the activities of the website. The lawsuit by Mr. Vorotnik and Ms. Sambur is the first-ever legal action against Ukrainska Pravda.

The two are demanding a refutation of the website's claims - voiced by Ukrainska Pravda in materials published in March of this year and November 2003 - that they had a role in political scandals surrounding the closure of Radio Kontynent and the publication of the so-called Honcharov letter.

In particular, according to Ukrainska Pravda, Mr. Vorotnik and Ms. Sambur advised Radio Kontynent chief Serhii Sholokh against retransmitting RFE/RL programs and proposed cooperation with Mr. Medvedchuk's Social Democratic Party-United. Mr. Sholokh did not heed those warnings. In early March the authorities seized Radio Kontynent's transmitter and premises, while Mr. Sholokh fled abroad, citing threats. Mr. Sholokh reportedly told Ukrainska Pravda about the role of Mr. Vorotnik and Ms. Sambur in the closure of his station in a telephone interview.

Ukrainska Pravda also claimed that in 2003, on the IMI website, Ms. Sambur published an expurgated letter by Ihor Honcharov, a former policemen and reputed crime boss, who was implicated by official investigators in the slaying of Mr. Gongadze. Mr. Honcharov died in police custody in August 2003, but before his death he reportedly managed to give the IMI a 17-page handwritten letter in which he claimed to possess information about Gongadze's killers, including audio recordings and a confession that he said he wanted to reveal to investigators in the presence of independent witnesses. According to Ukrainska Pravda, in the published letter Ms. Sambur removed the passage in which Honcharov accused President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the Gongadze murder.

Ukrainska Pravda reported that each plaintiff is demanding 10,000 hrv ($1,880 U.S.) in damages. The website argues, however, that the lawsuit is politically motivated and its real goal is to close the opposition website or to seriously impair its activities. To support its argument, the website quoted the following passage from the complaint by Mr. Vorotnik and Ms. Sambur: "For the purpose of securing [our] claim in the course of pretrial preparations, [we request that the authorities] impound the property and money owned by the defendant and kept by the defendant or other persons."

Ukrainska Pravda is also concerned by the fact that the lawsuit was filed with the Pecherskyi District Court in Kyiv, which, according to the website, has "the hopeless reputation of being an institution controlled by Medvedchuk."

Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko expressed surprise at the demand by the plaintiffs regarding the confiscation of the defendant's property and money. "These kinds of acts of repression in the run-up to the [October presidential] election and the stepping-up of pressure on the authoritative Internet publication linked to the killed journalist Heorhii Gongadze will do nothing to improve the image of the Ukrainian authorities," UNIAN quoted Mr. Yushchenko as saying. "Even without this, in Ukraine and far beyond they have the reputation of oppressors of the freedom of speech."

Yulia Tymoshenko's Fatherland Party said the lawsuit against Ukrainska Pravda is "the start of a punitive campaign against the freedom of speech and free and independent journalism."

Jan Maksymiuk is the Belarus and Ukraine specialist on the staff of RFE/RL Newsline.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 6, 2004, No. 23, Vol. LXXII

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