State and Media: Each on its Own Wavelength

Last week Ukrainian journalists held an action called Freedom Trek on Europe Square in front of the UNIAN News Agency in order to call again on Verkhovna Rada to amend media-related laws. The function was organized by Lviv media people under the aegis of the National Union of Ukrainian Journalists. A similar function had been held on the Lviv University plaza two days before. Freedom Trek has become a logical continuation of the Wave of Freedom initiated last spring by journalists of the Lviv-based newspaper Ekspres (Express) and widely covered by the Ukrainian media.

The proposed changes to media laws, submitted to parliament then, never came to a vote last session. This in fact prompted the Lviv journalists to organize this new action on the opening day of Verkhovna Rada’s sixth session. Demands are still being made on capping awards for moral damages in anti-media lawsuits at the level of 150 untaxed minimal incomes for Ukrainian citizens. In addition, the protesters demand that Verkhovna Rada begin to work on an Information Code, which would make it impossible for the authorities to interfere with the media. In case of noncompliance with their demands, Freedom Trek participants reserve the right to take more radical steps. Incidentally, the parliamentary Committee on the Freedom of Expression and Information also supports the journalists’ basic demands, committee chairman Oleksandr Zinchenko said at a recent press conference.