Sixth edition of <I>White Book of Crimean Journalism</I> published

The Committee for Monitoring Press Freedom in the Crimea unveiled the 2006 issue of the White Book of Crimean Journalism, which was published with the assistance of the International Renaissance Foundation. The launch took place during the roundtable “Problems of Freedom of Speech in the Crimea in 2006 and Challenges for Journalists in 2007.”

The meeting was organized with assistance from the Media Fund at the US Embassy in Ukraine and the Crimean Information Press Center. Crimean state officials, parliamentarians, journalists, experts, lawyers, and representatives of journalists’ organizations took part in the roundtable.

The 2006 White Book is the sixth edition of this publication. As noted by Volodymyr Prytula, the head of the Committee for Monitoring Press Freedom in the Crimea, there was no White Book published in 2005. “With the change of power in 2004-05 serious changes took place in the development of the information sphere and guarantees for freedom of speech in Ukraine. So when we started to collect material, we saw that the White Book for 2005 would be too thin.”

Unfortunately, 2006 proved that these changes were irreversible. According to the Crimean monitoring committee, last year the government and politicians launched an offensive on the rights and freedoms that had been gained by the mass media after the Orange Revolution. There was also active resistance by journalists against attempts to restrict freedom of speech in the Crimea.

The White Book for 2006 contains documents from Crimean journalists’ organizations on this issue, as well as testimonies on harassment and censorship cases, assault and battery of journalists, intimidation, threats, detention and imprisonment, restriction of journalistic activity, obstruction of access to information, court prosecutions, and other violations of freedom of speech.