Embassy of Ukraine protests "stridently biased" CBS report (10/30/94)

Embassy of Ukraine protests "stridently biased" CBS report

Reprinted below is the letter sent by the Embassy of Ukraine to Eric W. Ober, president of the CBS News Division, in response to the report aired by "60 Minutes."

As an official representative of Ukraine I wish to convey my government's utter resentment at the stridently biased segment on the alleged rise of anti-Semitism in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, in western Ukraine and Transcarpathia (October 23, CBS, "60 Minutes").

The segment is not only far from being objective and impartial, it is worded in tone and essence as a classic example of "cold war" journalism, hardly befitting a major U.S. network which has a sizable audience in Ukraine.

CBS co-host Morley Safer has abused his position with a large international audience to insinuate that a newly born independent and democratic Ukraine is "hardly a unified entity" and that Ukrainians are "genetically anti-Semitic."

In the last three years since Ukraine has been officially recognized by the U.S. government rarely have we witnessed such a blatant case of public irresponsibility and insult to a nation which is building its own free and democratic society on the ruins of a more than 300-year-old empire, where anti-Semitism was often a state policy. Ukraine has put an end not only to the empire itself but to the practice of anti-Semitism and all other expressions of chauvinism which are officially outlawed in Ukraine. Ukraine has enacted and enforces the most liberal and just legislation which stands guard over the rights of Ukrainian Jews and other minorities. Ukraine's record on the protection of minorities and minority rights has been acclaimed internationally.

Within the short three years of Ukraine' s independence, Jewish life and cultural activities have been on the rise in Ukraine, and dozens of new synagogues have been opened with the vigorous support of the Ukrainian government. The nation pays special tribute to hundreds upon hundreds of Ukrainian "Righteous Gentiles" who, risking their own lives, saved Jewish families from Nazi terror during the time of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

When he visits the United States in late November, the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma plans to present a list of at least 200 Ukrainian "Righteous Gentiles" to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to internationally commemorate their exploits. Therefore, we regard as absolutely inadmissible and openly provocative the statements by Morley Safer, which draw a parallel between the current inter-ethnic situation in Ukraine and Nazi genocide atrocities during Hitler's "Final Solution."

We expect that CBS's "60 Minutes" will carry a retraction of those statements and present an official apology for its gross injustice to Ukraine and its people in the highly abusive report mentioned above. If your staff is unable to do an impartial, well-researched report on the state of inter-ethnic relations in Ukraine and prefers to resort to trite generalizations based on sound bites by "unidentified men," we strongly advise that you should provide air time to a Ukrainian Embassy representative who will present an accurate account of those relations in Ukraine.

Sincerely,
Charge d'Affaires of Ukraine
Valery Kuchinsky
Washington

| Home Page |