From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Jun 26 2002 - 09:43:57 EDT
A HIGH-RISK JOB
Weekly report of events in the mass media of CIS states
Issue no. 22, June 10 - 16, 2002
Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations
4 Zubovsky Boulevard,
Moscow 119021, Russia
phone: (+ 7 095) 201-7626; 201-3550 comm. 124
fax: (+ 7 095) 201-7626
e-mail: panfilov@monitoring.ru
Web site: www.cjes.ru
I. Conflicts with the Authorities or Political Organizations
Azerbaijan
Journalists of Ieni Musavat and Khurriet newspapers and other media outlets
and activists of the Popular Front, the Democratic Party and other organizations
held on June 11 an authorized rally outside the headquarters of the ruling Yeni
Azerbaijan ruling party, demanding that the authorities regard the Kurdish PKK
organization as a terrorist group and end persecution of media that report PKK's
activities inside Azerbaijan. These reports have caused numerous conflicts between
journalists and certain political figures.
Georgia
Alia newspaper reported a visit to its office by a Security Ministry
official who tried to organize a smear campaign against some opposition political
figures. Journalists believe that he did it clumsily and the newspaper wants to
know why the ministry used this method.
Kazakhstan
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry on June 11 issued a statement sharing the EU's
concern over incidents involving numerous media outlets in the country. The
statement says that President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered the law enforcement
agencies to find those who committed acts of vandalism against media such as
setting on fire the office of Delovoye Obosreniye - Respublika, planting a headless
body of a dog in the office, an arson in the printing house of Ak Zhaiyk newspaper
in Atyrau, damaging the feeder of the Almaty-based Tan TV company and attack on the
personnel of SolDAT newspaper.
Kyrgyzstan
The Dzhalal-Abad region governor's press secretary Orozaly Karasartov
complained on June 10 that the organizers of pickets and rallies in the region
pressurize journalists into reporting only what serves the organizers' purposes.
Pickets give interviews only to opposition media journalists who "provide biased
information," he said.
Turkmenistan
On June 10 the International Helsinki Federation and the Memorial Human
Rights Center held a meeting in Vienna to discuss the civil society and human
rights situation in Turkmenistan. They said in a statement that the Niyazov
government had "destroyed the space for civil society," there is no freedom of
speech in the country and the president is the sole founder of newspapers. The
conference called on the world community to promote implementation of numerous
demands such as assuring freedom of speech, allowing dissemination of foreign media
inside the country, removal of unwarranted restrictions on the activities of
foreign journalists and lifting restrictions on accessing the Internet.
Ukraine
The violent deaths of journalists Georgy Honhadze and Ihor Oleksandrov
continue to dominate the public mind in Ukraine. Yulia Tymoshenko bloc's supporters
in parliament called for setting up an ad hoc commission investigating the murders,
an attempt on the life of parliament member Oleksandr Yelyashkevich and offenses
against the Constitution and Ukrainian legislation committed by senior officials.
Parliament member Yevhen Zhovtyak moved a draft parliamentary resolution
expressing mistrust of the National TV and Radio Council, in particular its head
Borys Kholod. Zhovtyak accuses the council of revoking without a good reason the
licenses of independent TV and radio companies and obstructing the development of
the media industry.
Uzbekistan
At the end of its visit to Uzbekistan a delegation of the Committee to
Protect Journalists on June 10 called on President Islam Karimov to set free the
three journalists held in police custody and change the policy of restricting the
media freedom. Uzbek bureaucrats have formally lifted censorship but the CPJ notes
that the media have developed a self-censorship, which is why journalists are
reluctant to cover corruption, human rights violations or the activities of
opposition parties or Islamic organizations.
II. Judicial and Legal Persecution
Armenia
The Civil and Economic Chamber of the Court of Appeals on June 14 upheld
the Economic Court's ruling in the case of Meltex, the founder of A1+ TV company
whose license had been revoked, vs. the National TV and Radio commission.
Belarus
The trial continued of Nikolai Markevich, the editor-in-chief, and Pavel
Mozheiko, a reporter, of Grodno-based Pagonya newspaper that the authorities had
closed. Markevich argued on June 10 that the paper's reports did not slander
anybody but expressed the views of their author. He called for regarding the
reports in Belarus, Russia and elsewhere on disappearance and mysterious deaths of
well-known opposition figures in Belarus as court evidence.
Kyrgyzstan
The Suzak district prosecution service on June 10, 2002 appealed in the
Criminal College of the Dzhalal-Abad Region Court the conviction in the district
court of human rights activist, journalist Ziyakhidin Mamazhanov who had been found
guilty of hooliganism and ordered to pay a fine of an equivalent of 2,000 soms, an
equivalent of $42.
Ukraine
The Crimean authorities continue persecution of Bakhchisaraisky Vestnik
newspaper. The Committee for Monitoring Freedom of Press in Crimea called on heads
of the district executive and legislative branch to take steps to reverse the
decisions of those bodies to reject an application for accreditation of the paper's
editor Lyudmila Shchekun. The grounds for rejection are illegal, the committee
feels.
The Kyiv court of appeals rejected Yuliya Tymoshenko's suit to the National
TV Company of Ukraine and the State Treasury program. She wanted the court to quash
the decision of the Shevchenkovskiy District Court in Kyiv and refute the TV
program's report that "as head of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine in 1996
Yuliya Tymoshenko illegally remitted abroad nearly $1 billion."
Immediately afterwards the Shevchenkovskiy District Court heard again the
honor, dignity and business reputation protection suit filed by Socialist Party
leader Oleksandr Moroz against the National TV company and its former head Vadym
Dolganov .
The Kyiv Economic Court on June 11 started hearing the suit filed by Takiye
Dela (So It Goes) publishing company against the Kyiv Solomensky District Tax
Inspection Office and the Kyiv City Tax Administration. The company regards as
illegal the fines totaling nearly 1.5 million hryvnias imposed on it for alleged
offenses of tax legislation. The plaintiff argues that no offenses have been
committed while the checks and a search of the enterprise have been carried out
improperly. At the defendant's request the court suspended the hearing of the case.
Journalists of Industrialnoye Zaporozhye newspaper issued a statement on
June 11 saying that the paper may have to close down because bureaucrats criticized
in it demand in court that vast compensations be paid to them. In particular, when
the paper published a report saying that state-run Zaporizhzhyarynok enterprise
does not spend money as intended, the managers of the enterprise demanded in court
that the paper pay nearly $15,000 as compensation.
III. Journalists Killed
Kazakhstan
Journalists Yerzhan Imankulov, 23, an operator of the 31st Channel, and
Yekaterina Latypova, 42, a correspondent of Panorama newspaper, were among the
three people killed in a road accident on the Almaty - Ust-Kamenogorsk road in East
Kazakhstan on June 11.
IV. Attack on Journalists and Threats
Georgia
Vakhtang Komakhidze, a correspondent of the 60 Minutes program run by
Rustavi-2 private TV company was attacked in the course of an experiment designed
to expose the techniques used by Georgian police. Komakhidze contacted a man whom
the police were trying to recruit as an informer. The man told the police that
Komakhidze whose identity was unknown to them carried heroin in his pocket. The
police stopped Komakhidze, beat and insulted him but did not produce an arrest
warrant or evidence of his guilt. The program's filming crew covered the incident.
The Freedom Institute, a non-governmental organization, gave a news
conference on June 13 on abuse of journalists' rights in the course of the June 2
municipal elections. Journalists Elga Poladishvili and Tamar Khoperiya who had
covered the elections in the town of Bolnisi told the news conference that the town
administration head Zurab Dzhaparidze and his brother had taken part in beating
them. The two women intend to sue their attackers.
Kazakhstan
In Atyrau a human scull was found nailed to the door of Ak Zhaiyk newspaper
office on June 13. The paper's journalists regard this as a new attempt at
frightening them. Molotov cocktail bottles had earlier been thrown through the
office's windows. The journalists believe the incident to be the work of local
authorities.
Kyrgyzstan
Tash-Kumyr mayor Mamatnazar Zhakylbayev threatened Zhalil Saparov, deputy
editor-in-chief of state-run regional newspaper Akyikat on the telephone. Saparov
attributed the mayor's anger to anr article on the latter's misdeeds. The
journalist complained to the regional prosecution office where he was told that his
complained could not be confirmed. Soon afterwards Saparov had to resign over
disagreement with the editor-in-chief.
Ukraine
In Zhytomir, a car owned by the family of Ihor Ivanytskiy, head of the
local Krok radio station, was bombed. This is a second attempt at destroying his
Jeep after the parliamentary elections in the country. The law enforcement agencies
have ample evidence that this was a contracted attack.
VI. Restricting Access to Information
Azerbaijan
Journalists invited to cover a meeting with an Iranian parliamentary
delegation were led out of the parliament building following the objections, raised
by the Iranians, to the presence of the media.
Communication Minister Nadir Akhmedov said that Armenian broadcasts to
Azerbaijan are being jammed but a month is needed to make the jamming total.
Kyrgyzstan
Suzak district newspaper Kok-Art Nuru journalist Zhalil Saparov had his
official query about the state of affairs in the district agriculture rejected. A
local official said that his superiors banned divulging any information to anybody.
Ukraine
Journalists are not allowed since June 12 to cover the court case of the
killing of parliament members Yevhen Shcherban and Vadym Hetman. The evidence
suggests that the killing was masterminded by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo
Lazarenko.
Comment by Viktoriya Blonskaya, apprentice legal adviser of the Center of
Journalism in Extreme Situations
(Section IV) The state agency refusing to make information available must
explain the reason of the refusal in line with the law or practice. This principle
is contained in an appendix to Recommendation: R (18) 19 of the Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe on access to information available to state
agencies.
Unlike the Russian Media Law under which it is the state agencies' and
officials' d u t y to make information available in response to requests filed
by editorial boards, the Kyrgyz Media Law gives them the r i g h t to make
information available to media. This makes a lot of difference because one may use
the right at one's own discretion while the duty must be performed by all means.
Furthermore, the Kyrgyz media legislation is inconsistent.
In his/her professional activities the journalist has a right to collect
and disseminate information. This right is embodied in the Kyrgyz Media Law. The
Kyrgyz Journalist's Professional Activity Protection Law's Article 5 enaables the
journalist "to ask for and obtain information significant to the public in state
and local self-government agencies" and "to have access to documents, materials and
information other than those that contain state or other protected secrets or
confidential information." In the case under reported in this Bulletin the
information was not secret. Indeed, the State Secret Protection Law's Article 4
says unambiguously that data on the state of affairs in agriculture will not be
secret. What is more, Article 13 of the Journalist's Professional Activity
Protection Law makes state official liable for obstructing the journalist's
professional activity.
We feel therefore that the refusal to divulge information was unwarranted.
The action of the bureaucrats may be challenged in court as infringement on the
journalists' legitimate right to collect and disseminate information.
Event Report by own correspondents Reports by outside sources
Verified Unverified
Attacks on journalists and
threats Job-unrelated 1 (Ukraine)
Job-related 3 (Georgia)
1 (Kazakhstan)
1 (Kyrgyzstan)
1 (Ukraine)
Journalists
killed Job-unrelated 2 (Kazakhstan)
Job-related
Journalists detained and arrested
Legal and judicial
persecution 1 (Armenia) 1 (Belarus)
1 (Kyrgyzstan)
5 (Ukraine)
Other kinds of harrasing editorial boards and
journalists 1 (Armenia)
1 (Georgia) 1 (Azerbaijan)
2 (Belarus)
1 (Kazakhstan)
4 (Kyrgyzstan)
2 (Turkmenistan)
1 (Uzbekistan)
5 (Ukraine)
Restriction of access to
information
2 (Azerbaijan)
1 (Kyrgyzstan)
1 (Ukraine)
Initiatives of authorities
and NGOs
Disappeared journalists
|
