Did a Lieutenant Colonel ban a newspaper?

The twenty-first issue of Kommersant-Ukraina did not go to press on February 7. The printers, the Kyivska Viyskovo-Kartohrafichna Fabryka (Kyiv Military Cartographic Plant), in violation of the contract between the printing house and the newspaper, had refused to print the issue given them on time and in conformity with all the required technical parameters. In a press release, the editors call this incident “political censorship by the printers.” In line with a document made up by the printers, the issue in question was denied access to the presses “because it carried on its title page the photograph and text which could be viewed as anti presidential, and because other Kommersant Ukrainy textual and photographic materials in the same issue prompted a similar conclusion. The oral order banning the printing was issued over the phone by the plant’s commander, Lt. Col. A. V. Omelchuk, at 2 a.m. on February 7, 2001, following a report to him by Capt. K. V. Yatsun at 1:45 a.m. stressing the presence of the mentioned materials.”

“This is a clear example of how backward our military can be. It is simultaneously abominable and ludicrous,” Kommersant-Ukraina editor Mariya ZUBAREVA says. “The photograph with text on February 6 demonstrations captured a mob with a Kuchma Kaput! slogan (this photo, incidentally, is property of API and made headlines worldwide). The plant commanding officer said that he had taken an oath of allegiance to the Commander in Chief (President Kuchma — Ed.) and such a photograph was detrimental to the president’s honor and dignity. The text was written by an ace correspondent of the Moscow-based Kommersant editorial board who came to Kyiv specially to cover the February 6 rally. Ironically, the text is absolutely impartial or even has a slightly negative assessment of the actions by the opposition and crowd. But the military officials did not seem to care much about commitments to subscribers and advertisers, and, after all, business is business. We have tried to get in touch with the printers but they could not be reached. When we asked be to put through to the printing house director or his deputy, a duty officer just told us that, as of February 7, all the bosses are on vacation backdated to start one day earlier. I somehow fail to understand how a Lieutenant Colonel can ban a newspaper from going to press just that simple — by issuing orders over the telephone. This is a case without precedent.”