Information Blockade: Regime Becomes Repeat Offender

Unfortunately, no sensation occurred. Despite the fact that Government Day was on the Verkhovna Rada agenda, there was no television or radio coverage. This makes one wonder, considering that the Solons were to hear about payments on back wages and pensions, as well as about Ukraine's domestic and foreign debt. In other words, the Cabinet was to report to the people rather than Parliament. Once again, Leonid Kuchma's executive demonstrated its panic-stricken fear of its own people and that people being informed. It was also more proof that top officials do care one bit about the people and its rights. At the same time, this impunity is in a way justified by the people remaining silent. For so long as the people remain passive the regime will feel free to operate however it sees fit.

Ivan Chyzh, chairman of the legislature's freedom of speech and information committee, reminded that the parliamentary resolution ignored by the executive is based on the law providing for media coverage of the actions of central and local self-government. Specifically, it envisions that Verkhovna Rada resolutions regulate pertinent matters in certain cases. As for Government Day, it took place as usual with Parliament under an information blockade

Now, however, the information blockade is not the point, Socialist Vinsky noted, for it is ”just one of the elements of the coup d'etat being staged by the Kuchma team.”

Thus the Left Center fraction believes the lawmakers should put aside all other problems and get the situation in Ukraine under control by taking specific measures. ”Measures against the usurpation of power” were suggested by Hromada's Karmazin. The latter believes that international organizations should be invited and consultations held in Parliament. ”What is happening is a criminal offense,” he declared. He asked the Premier, ”Who are you trying so hard for, Mr. Pustovoitenko? Leonid Kuchma will never become President again.” Although he should have probably drawn the Premier's attention to the fact that, Kuchma or not, his career would be eclipsed if not today then tomorrow.

As for international organizations, the legislative leadership is likely to meet with the diplomatic corps soon to discuss civil liberties in Ukraine. The subject must be very acute, considering that Oleksandr Yemets (Reforms Congress) could not but mention in his speech US Ambassador Stephen Pifer's views carried by the newspaper Fakty Friday before last: ”Ukraine has taken significant steps in creating freedom of the press.” Mr. Yemets, in turn, suggested that the Ambassador's statement was ”distorted” and invited Mr. Pifer to ”voice his unbiased opinion,” adding matter-of-factly that back in the early 1990s, when the democrats were fighting for this freedom the situation was much better than now at the end of the century.

It is interesting to note that the SDPU(u), Labor Ukraine, Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), and even the NDP could but confirm that radio and television coverage should be secured under the law. The Progressive Socialists, after a period of strange silence, finally added its nickel's worth to the struggle for democracy when Comrade Stozhenko declared that ”there is one opportunity for the entire people to hear words of truth: from the Verkhovna Rada podium.” Both Rukh splinters perhaps constituted the only exception, rubbing their hands quietly, watching the Left in Parliament suffer the worst from the absence of democracy and freedom of speech. Yet this is not the time to rejoice at the death of the neighbor's cow. Tomorrow it could be you.

Lawmakers friendly to Leonid Kuchma and his Cabinet complimented Mr. Pustovoitenko: he knows and hears all; he can solve the media coverage problem in a jiffy. But it all sounded very much like fulsome flattery and proved of no consequence whatever.

Hryhory Omelchenko, on the contrary, perplexed the Premier asking if it was not, by any remote chance, his firm registered somewhere in the United States and specified its whereabouts. By ”sheer chance” (in his own words) Mr. Pustovoitenko had a document on him, an SBU statement to the effect that he had no property abroad. Mr. Omelchenko was not be discouraged and recalled that the same authorities had made similar statements concerning Lazarenko and Volkov.

Mr. Pustovoitenko had nothing to say on the main topic, broadcast coverage. He did not even try to make any promises. Addressing journalists, Ivan Chyzh stressed that ”the point is not whether the people can hear the Cabinet report to the Verkhovna Rada; the point is whether the law reigns supreme or is again being flagrantly violated.”

They say that doing it the first time — killing a fellow human or breaking the law — is always frightening, but then one just gets used to it. Parliament decided to adjourn Government Day and instructed the Cabinet to secure live transmission. Does this mean that Kuchma's regime, having placed itself above the law, will concede? Not likely. After all, Speaker Tkachenko's four minute recorded address to the Ukrainian people concerning the domestic situation was never run by the National Television Company. And there is nothing he seems able to do about it. It looks like this creeping coup will last until the election. One can only hope to God it will end then.

INCIDENTALLY

Verkhovna Rada cannot make a decision to bring down the Cabinet after Government Day, Deputy Speaker Viktor Medvedchuk declared, recalling that under the body's rules and the Constitution Government Day and Cabinet dissolution are ”different matters.” To bring down the Cabinet, enough signatures must be collected to place the issue on the agenda, then inform the government, and hear its report, Interfax Ukraine reports.

Mr. Medvedchuk also said that handling this issue on the election's eve would not be a good idea, for the Cabinet would be replaced afterward anyway, adding that under the circumstances Parliament is unlikely to collect enough votes to oust the government.