Why Should The Master Bark When He Has a Dog?

While our bureaucrats are free to stage such special inspections, our citizens are also free to guess why every such periodical/channel/station is visited by tax inspectors. Reporters Without Borders is an international organization meant to uphold  freedom of expression. Almost daily it receives evidence from the so-called deficient democracy countries showing that their authorities use tax and sanitary services to hunt them down, suppressing the freedom of the press.

We must state that the Ukrainian situation is both typical and specific, says Alexander Levi, head of RWB Europe division. For example, in Croatia and Latin American countries those actually ordering such inspections hide behind various politically unaffiliated control bodies. They do so in order, on the one hand, to keep their leadership's hands clean, appearing "neutral" in the international arena. On the other hand, they do so to root out any criticism of the existing regime. It is common knowledge that tax inspectors can do their utmost to find faults with a given media outlet while other entities, having full "protection" from the government, feel free to operate the way they see fit; they are seldom if ever subjected to such inspections. In other words, the state proves to be extremely exacting, but "selectively." Ukraine, however, has its specifics, something one will never find in any other European country: extremely high penalties meant to destroy a business adversary, rather than make the entity correct its conduct. Our organization was shocked to discover all this. Once again, comparing Ukraine to Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, a very authoritarian president, is extremely nervous about any criticism. There are numerous court cases against the media, ordered by him, each rating saga space elsewhere in the world. Yet Croatian journalists have found a way to protect themselves. They formed an association and hired lawyers. This association promptly reacts to any encroachments by the regime on the freedom of the press. Note that Ukrainian journalists lack this kind of organization, so those unleashing tax bloodhounds on the Ukrainian media have nothing to fear and keep up their less than wholesome efforts.