Journalists protest paper's shutdown (02/15/98)

Journalists protest paper's shutdown

Following is the full text of a letter sent to President Leonid Kuchma by the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York concerning the shutdown of the newspaper Pravda Ukrainy.

Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by your government's decision to shut down the opposition daily newspaper Pravda Ukrainy on January 28, two months before national parliamentary elections.

Oleksander Horobets, the editor, told CPJ that on January 28 the state publishing house Presa Ukrainy announced it would no longer publish his newspaper upon the orders of the Ministry of Information. Information Minister Zinovii Kulyk had given the order after withdrawing Pravda Ukrainy's registration with the ministry, which is required by law, citing a technical error in its registration and ownership documents. The order claimed that the percentage of shares listed in the documents added up to 110, and not 100, percent. According to Ukraine's press law however, only a court of law or the owner of a periodical have the authority to close a publication.

Horobets attributed what he called the "unprecented move" against Pravda Ukrainy to his newspaper's critical stance against your administration and its editorial support of a rival political party, Hromada. He said a recent series of articles about corruption in the government, and one piece in particular, published on January 27, detailing how some top government officials improperly or illegally obtained apartments, most likely prompted the ministry's decision. He added that the newspaper's national circulation had grown from 70,000 to over a half million in just six months, and this also contributed to its perception as a threat to your administration's dominant role in the media. Horobets explained that the mathematical error cited by the ministry actually occurred when he applied to re-register the paper and to register two new publications, which the ministry refused to do in September. The editor said Pravda Ukrainy's original registration, valid since July 1994, contained no such error.

Horobets said he turned to a private printing house, which publishes the popular independent daily Kievskiye Viedomosti, to print his newspaper. Several issues were published until the company received an official warning from the ministry that it would face a similar fate if it continued to publish Pravda Ukrainy. The newspaper has also discovered that its bank accounts have been frozen and that it may be evicted from its offices.

As a non-profit, non-partisan organization of journalists dedicated to defending the universally recognized rights of our colleagues around the world, CPJ condemns the shutdown and silencing of Pravda Ukrainy by the Ukrainian Ministry of Information as a violation of all international norms of free expression. Your government's decision to close an alternative source of news and information, in a manner contradictory to Ukrainian law, two months before Ukrainians are scheduled to elect a national legislature, contravenes all of Ukraine's international obligations and guarantees within the Ukrainian Constitution to protect press freedoms. We urge you to reinstate Pravda Ukrainy's registration and halt all official harassment against it.

Thank you for your attention. We look forward to your comments.

Sincerely,

William A. Orme Jr.
Executive Director

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