Is government able to hear the voice of journalists?
Yevhen Holovakha believes that it takes collective efforts to force Ukrainian politicians to begin a dialogue about the important issues
Last week, Mustafa Nayyem in his blog on the site of Ukrainska Pravda posted an appeal to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka. It is about a violation of procedure when voting in Parliament for Oleksandr Paseniuk as a judge of the Constitutional Court. Journalist and operator from TVi channel recorded that the deputy of Lytvyn Block Yurii Lytvyn put several ballots to the ballot box. Nayyem indicated the fact of violation in his appeal to the Prosecutor General, which, according to the law, should be a cause for opening a criminal case.
“I am sure there will be a lot of skeptics who treat this post with irony, as if saying, why to make a show out of it – the final result is known already anyway. Maybe, they will be right, and it will, most likely, happen like that. But I think that there has formed a stable and somewhat absurd tradition in Ukrainian politics. The crimes of the authorities are remembered only when they become the opposition,” wrote Nayyem in his blog. We can add to this statement that, unfortunately, Ukrainian people, in addition to everything, also got used to treat flagrant violations calmly, because they think nothing could be changed anyway. Perhaps, an act of a man, who said out loud about the absurdity of constantly recurring situation, looks unusual, but this is the case of declaring one’s civic position. Journalists, who declare themselves as fighters for freedom of speech, should consolidate around such statements and actions. After all, freedom of speech is not only the ability to write whatever you want, but a tool to make the authorities act in the right direction. The practice of voting for party fellows has been formed in years. It is, so to speak, native to the Ukrainian politicians. Thus, it would take even more effort and more convincing position of the public to change the ossified system. The Day asked Yevhen Holovakha, Ph.D. in Philosophy, professor, deputy director of Institute of Sociology, Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences whether the government is now able to pay attention to public pressure:
“Ukrainian authorities do not really tend to answer the call of public opinion. They can, perhaps, respond to mass protests. At least, I don’t remember a case when the officials have responded to the appeal of one person. Unless, we are talking about some scandalous exotic things, like beating a girl by son of Party of Regions deputy Roman Landyk in Luhansk. But the rule does not apply to matters that seriously affect the situation within the branches of government.
“What concerns the appeal by Nayyem, in order to make the authorities to pay attention to it he needs, at least, the support from fellow journalists. Although, I remember a case when hundreds of journalists signed an appeal to the ex-president Viktor Yushchenko, about the fact that he offended one of their colleagues. Then I didn’t quite like his reaction too. Therefore, ignoring public opinion is not the innovation of the current party of power, but a typical feature of Ukrainian government in general.
“If to speak about the content of the statement made by Nayyem, then we should admit that, unfortunately, the practice of voting for fraction colleagues is very common. In this case, virtually all decisions of the Verkhovna Rada are illegitimate. This issue has long been raised, journalists draw attention to it from time to time. But so far, unfortunately, nothing has changed. Voting for party fellows is an unwritten rule of our legislative activity. Of course, public’s attention should be drawn to this and we should keep asking this question. But it requires collective effort. The government won’t start a dialogue so easily. We should demand their reaction to these things. The last word will be said by the Ukrainian people at the elections.”
