MASS 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.