Independent Media Being Forced Off the Air
On July 20 Mykhailo Riabets, Chairman of the Central Election Committee,
presented new CEC regulations on use of the mass media in the presidential
campaign at a meeting of company presidents. The document's stiff regulatory
clauses will most likely make the media's work more complicated, and this
is especially true of the government-run channels. Simultaneously, the
main question of possible abuse and the President's uncontrollable use
of the government media remains open. The Day will soon carry an
in-depth analysis of the regulations and views of the meeting participants.
Below, staff reporters focus on some of the urgent problems facing the
independent media.
Cherkasy's private ATB Studio-2 has been off the air for the past two
weeks. Its chief editor Oleksandr Marchenko told The Day that the
Khreshchatyk Cafe frequented by Studio-2 reporters and used as a location
for shooting noted political figures was brought under pressure together
with the studio. The owner, Natalia Sorokina, found herself subject to
a variety of inspection commissions. As for the studio, it was simply denied
air time, reports The Day's Yevhen BRUSLYNOVSKY.
It all started after Studio-2 ran a feature on Yevhen Marchuk's news
conference at the Khreshchatyk. Retaliation came quickly. "We have never
been off the air for so long in the eight years of the studio's existence,"
says Oleksandr Marchenko. "And the technique the authorities used is quite
simple. The formal reason is that the oblast government-run television
company turned off our weekly Saturday evening program, demanding we pay
UAH 3,000 we owe for using its religious channel. And the state bank with
our account called our UAH 10,000 loan. As a result, the nine people comprising
the Studio-2 staff have been jobless for over two weeks. Direct damages
alone are more than UAH 20,000. We don't know who will cover them, but
we know who will pay a 20,000 hryvnias fine promptly levied on us by the
Arbitration Court for delayed loan repayment. We will."
It is quite possible that the Marchuk feature was the last straw for
the regime, because previous such programs showed opposition politicians,
even though of smaller caliber.
UNIAN reports that the Black Sea TV and Radio Company called on international
organizations defending journalist rights, the media, and Ukraine's volunteer
and political organizations to support it in its struggle for the freedom
of expression and the right to exist as an independent entity.
The company's statement reads that on July 19 it was served notice from
A. Trushkov, head of the State Telecommunications Inspectorate of the Autonomous
Republic of the Crimea, to the effect that all broadcasting be stopped
by July 26, the reason being that the Crimean Radio and Television Transfer
Center relaying BSTVRC programs has no permission from Ukrachastotnahliad
[Ukrainian Frequency Oversight Committee]. The company's editor-in-chief
Natalia Kondratyeva told The Day that Ukrachastotnahliad's decision
is aimed at "things other than putting the television space in order, because
this body's principled approach is obviously selective; the state television
and radio company is also using its transmitters and also without such
permission."
Getting the largest private Crimean channel off the air at the peak
of the presidential campaign is no coincidence, Natalia Kondratyeva believes.
This company has always been truly independent, allowing all political
forces air time. The interesting coincidence is that quite recently they
tried to do the same to Kyiv's STB, also using Ukrachastotnahliad bureaucrats,
reports The Day's Anatoly LEMYSH.
Frequency Becomes Blunt Instrument Against STB
Last week a Kyiv newspaper carried an article on the attempts to knock
the STB television station off the air by supervision bodies. The article
details the viewpoint of the Ukrainian Frequency Control Agency without
allowing the other side, the company being bludgeoned, to voice its opinion,
at least for an ostentatious display of objectivity. The Day's editors
have received an STB statement about a new attempt to upstage the popular
channel. It says, among other things:
"The STB television channel repeatedly publicized the complicated situation
about its own radio frequency license, considering that the problems were
artificially created.
"As far as we know, the problem should be resolved by referring it to
the Inter-Departmental Commission on Radio Frequency Licensing. We hope
the decision will be made by a collective body, which the commission is,
with the participation of all parties, and this will give us an opportunity
to fully express our views and arguments. Should the Inter-Departmental
Commission have a closed meeting without STB, 'it will be clear to all,'
as the channel president Dmytro Prykordonny says, 'that the license is
not at all the point.'
"As of today, we have had no official information as to when our question
will be heard, so we will refrain from further comment until the decision
is made.
"We were compelled to reiterate this position in connection with the
publication on this subject in a Kyiv newspaper.
"We hereby announce that the STB International Media Center Ltd. sent
as long ago as June 4 all materials to the Inter-Departmental Commission
on Radio Frequency Licensing needed to obtain a new license. They
were not looked into within 30 days, as required by the current Ukrainian
telecommunications law."
Editor's note. It will be recalled that the new series of attempts
to close the independent STB channel began at the very moment when it had
signed a deal to broadcast Verkhovna Rada sessions and voiced its attitude
to providing all presidential candidates with equal opportunities to use
STB air time.
The first attempt to shut down STB by the public health authority, supposedly
on the request of certain students who had allegedly been hazardously irradiated
by the STB antenna, fell with a thud. Then the Ukrainian Frequency Control
Agency entered the dirty pool with STB. This organization also demanded
this week that the Black Sea Television and Radio Company (see the previous
issue). And now some of our journalist colleagues have also joined the
persecution of STB.






