Press Freedom in the Eastern Partnership Countries

STRASBOURG, November 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

At a seminar on press freedom organised in the European Parliament in Strasbourg by the Brussels based Foundation for Democracy and Governance, fears were expressed of a crackdown on press freedom in Ukraine.

"It is important that we look beyond the results of the Vilnius Summit, and ensure that there is full freedom of the press; this is a cornerstone of democracy and a fundamental right," a director of the Foundation said. "Looking ahead to the presidential election campaign, it is important that the electorate have good, reliable and objective sources of information and news to help them to make informed choices," he went on to say.

Hosted by Italian EPP Member Fabrizio Bertot MEP, the meeting heard how the regional Odessa-based TV station ATV had recently been closed down by the Ukrainian Government.

On November 13 the Odessa Court of appeal revoked both licenses held by ATV, a regional TV station based in Odessa, whose owner Mr Igor Markov had recently been stripped of his status as a Member of the Verkhovna Rada.

Following this, some 160 individuals were summoned by the police in Odessa for questioning, 4 persons have been arrested and the Director General of the station has been detained in custody. 30 journalists and technicians now fear that they will lose their jobs.

"This is selective justice," said Nataliya Perevalova Editor in Chief of ATV, "It is the use of the Criminal Code to imprison our General Director seize our equipment, interrogate journalists who work for the Company and effectively close us down. Decisions and actions have been made so fast that the Company's administration has not even received the full text of the judgment and cannot appeal."

The reasons for the targeting of the ATV station are unclear but informed sources believe that it is related to the editorial policy of the station to broadcast economic content supporting a Russian backed campaign for Ukraine to join the Customs Union. The actions also followed an announcement by Igor Markov that he held presidential ambitions. But regardless of the motivation for the closure, the action follows a trend of the use of criminal sanctions to harass and terrorise the media into submission.

Denis Macshane, former BBC journalist and former President of the National Union of Journalists in the UK, spoke of the notorious case of Georgiy Gongadze, who paid the ultimate price when he was brutally murdered in 2009, and whose murderer was only brought to trial and sentenced earlier this year; however the trial was behind closed doors and the full details of the case have not yet been brought into the open. Moreover, in order to obfuscate the content of the internet portal Ukrainska Pravda which was founded by Gongadze, the authorities have created a clone website that mimics the original for the purposes of "black PR" to muddy the waters. "The bottom line is that Ukrainian people do not have free access to free and fair objective news coverage," he said.

Other participants at the conference referred to a general lack of transparency in political life in Ukraine, and a lack of respect for the press. One commentator suggested that the European Parliament should do more to encourage journalists from the Eastern Partnership countries to come to the European Parliament for fact finding and training visits; journalists from these countries should be encouraged to reach out to their colleagues in the Brussels Press Corps and develop their international networks.

Closing the conference Fabrizio Bertot MEP said that he was very concerned with the issue of the freedom of speech. He proposed that the ATV station should invite a group of MEPs to come to Odessa for a fact-finding visit, during which they could be interviewed by the local station. An open invitation was also extended by the Foundation of Democracy and Governance for the TV station to visit the Brussels Press Club and build up links with the Brussels Press Corps.

Administrator of the Foundation responsible for media relations for the Foundation of Democracy and Governance, registered in Belgium, http://www.fondationdg.com 

Strasbourg
21 November 2013