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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Regime Purges Kyiv TV After Closing Four Crimean Stations

31 July, 1999 - 00:00

By Iryna HAVRYLOVA and Natalia LIHACHOVA, The Day 
The press service of the STB independent television channel
states that the channel was served notice on August 26 by Ukreksimbank
keeping its accounts that all further operations using them would be suspended,
as instructed by the Tax Administration of the Radiansky (City) District
Tax Administration. Officially, the accounts are blocked because STB failed
to submit «documents relating to the accrual and payment of taxes.» Practically,
it means that the channel will be paralyzed. STB President Dmytro Prykordonny
declared that the TA made its decision contrary to a number of currently
effective regulatory documents and laws of Ukraine. STB regards the occurrence
as the channel's unlawful closure and a blatant violation of the freedom
of expression in Ukraine.

Volodymyr Syvkovych, Chairman of the STB Administrative
Council, claims that Serhiy Zubrytsky, First Deputy Head of the Tax Administration,
told him in a private telephone conversation that he had been instructed
to block the channel's bank accounts and that he did as ordered.

On Friday August 27 STB television channel management called
a news conference at UNIAN and made a statement on the tax authorities'
illegal conduct. According to channel president Prykordonny, their bank
account was closed for reasons formulated as «non-presentation of documents
relating to the accrual and payment of taxes,» which is absolutely improper,
because no documents are specified. The STB leadership maintains that all
the documents the tax people could require under current law had been duly
submitted.

Journalists attending the news conference were handed copies
of a detailed list of the government inspections the channel has sustained
since May 1999, including the Sanitary and Epidemics Station, State Telecommunications
Inspectorate, License Chamber, Oversight and Regulation Administration,
district and city tax inspectorates, and district tax police. The Day
has on more than one occasion commented on what is actually behind
all this over attentiveness of the regulators: primarily, STB's contract
to air legislative plenary sessions after the government- controlled channel
UT-1 stopped so doing. Apparently, transmissions from Parliament's session
to open this September are the last thing the President's team wants to
see, and the same is true of all STB's more or less unbiased programs dealing
with Leonid Kuchm

STB executives further claimed that the closure of their
account with Ukreksimbank actually means an end to their broadcasts in
Ukraine. At the same time, one could notice that both Mr. Syvkovych of
the channel's administrative council and Mr. Prykordonny were restrained
in their references to the authorities, most likely still hoping to resolve
the problem without open confrontation. It was stated, in part, «We are
being closed not because we do not support Leonid Kuchma's policy, but
because we elucidate the current President's policy the ‘wrong' way.»

Whether they manage to keep STB on the air using this tactic
will become clear in the immediate future. Unfortunately, the experience
of election campaigns in Ukraine shows that those in bad odor with the
regime are disposed of if worst comes to worst, no matter how carefully
they watch their step or try to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds,
let alone in case of open confrontation — although the latter always manages
to dot all the i's and cross the t's, including the electorate. While in
the 1994 presidential campaign only one TV studio, Gravis, was closed,
one could cite dozens of examples of the current regime's arbitrary actions
against dissenting media. It suffices to recall Dnipropetrovsk's Channel
11, four Crimean television-radio companies, as well as the newspapers
Polityka and Dnepropetrovskaya Pravda .

The Day expresses its solidarity with STB and hopes
that the Journalists' Union of Ukraine, special Verkhovna Rada committee,
and the media wishing to retain their reputation with the people will have
something to say on how the freedom of speech is being implemented in Ukraine.

PS: All officials of the Radiansky District Tax
Inspectorate (Deputy Head included) contacted by The Day



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