Nobody Apologizing to <I>Kyiv Post</I> Publisher
On the evening of the Tuesday before last, Jed Sunden, an American businessman and publisher of the Kyiv-based English-language newspaper Kyiv Post , was detained in Kyiv’s Boryspil Airport. Mr. Sunden arrived in Kyiv on a flight from Istanbul at about 6 p.m. While going through passport control, he was told he was banned from entering Ukraine and had his passport taken.
Our correspondent got in touch with Jed Sunden on Wednesday afternoon, when he was still in Boryspil. According to him, officials gave no reason for the decision to keep him out of Ukraine. No charges were filed against him. His passport and visa were in order. He did not know if this unexpected decision was connected with his publishing activities in Ukraine. In spite of what happened, he intends to continue to publish his newspaper in Ukraine.
The Boryspil Airport immigration service, which had not let the American in, refused comment, saying they had to contact their superiors. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs press service confirmed this information to The Day’s Viktor VORONIUK but refused to comment, explaining this by the absence of higher-ups.
However, the comment The Day received from The Kyiv Post says, “This action committed on the eve of the visit to Ukraine by US Secretary of State Madeline Albright can only be considered as part of a more powerful onslaught on freedom of the press and economic reform in Ukraine. A anonymous source has informed us that the decision to ban Mr. Sunden’s entry into Ukraine was made at the top echelons of the government on March 31. Since the proclamation of Ukrainian independence in 1991, the government-press relations in this country could have been better. The Council of Europe has repeatedly expressed concern over the condition of the freedom of expression in Ukraine.”
The US Embassy in Ukraine has also expressed concern about Mr. Sunden’s detention, asking to immediately explain the reasons why he was not let into Ukraine.
Last Thursday, American Jed Sunden was equally suddenly allowed to enter the country. At 1 p.m. he came back to Boryspil Airport from Vienna, where he had been waiting for further developments after his deportation from Ukraine. Our journalists met him in his office on Lesia Ukrainka Boulevard. According to Mr. Sunden, nobody had yet explained to him what he was guilty of and what provoked the original ban on his entry. He himself is not inclined to think that the dissatisfaction of Ukrainian authorities was caused by his routine publishing work. He believes that it was the wide repercussions in the press, both Ukrainian and foreign, that forced the initiators of the ban to reverse their decision. On the other hand, nobody has officially apologized to him for what happened. Mr. Sunden himself has not yet decided whether to file suit for damages, both material (round-trip tickets to Vienna) and perhaps moral.
The Kyiv Post has been published in Kyiv since 1995 and is one of the nation’s most popular English-language periodicals.
