ANALYSIS

Ukraine's independent media suffer more woes

by Lily Hyde
RFE/RL Newsline

Ukraine's non-government media have suffered a series of recent setbacks that have further reduced the dwindling number of independent media outlets in the country.

Late last month, the trouble-plagued opposition daily Kievskie Viedomosti suspended publication after it ran out of money. Another opposition newspaper, Polityka, announced that the state printing press was refusing to publish it, despite a court ruling in the newspaper's favor. And the state broadcasting company temporarily silenced a private TV channel, while another private TV channel claims it is being harassed and intimidated.

These four cases are the latest chapters in a saga of political and financial problems encountered by the independent media in Ukraine.

Kievskie Viedomosti

According to Dmytro Chekalkin, president of the broadcasting arm of the Kievskie Viedomosti media company, the newspaper does not have the financial resources to continue publishing. The newspaper's deputy editor-in-chief, Irina Titova, said staffers have not been paid for the last four months and working conditions have become intolerable, as staff have use of only three phone lines, four computers and no newswire service or Internet access.

Kievskie Viedomosti has been dogged by previous misfortunes, most of which it claims were due to political persecution for its oppositionist editorial content. Mr. Chekalkin said a general decline in advertising and unfair competition were major factors in the newspaper's demise. Other Ukrainian newspapers, he noted, are subsidized by companies close to the presidential administration and the current government, and sell for only 5 or 6 kopiiky (less than 2 cents U.S.) per issue.

Ms. Titova said the editorial staff decided to suspend publication in an attempt to attract attention to the newspaper's plight. She said the newspaper wants its shareholders to pay attention to its problems. The newspaper's major shareholders are the Ukrainian companies Dendi, Dovira, Ukrrichflot and Pryvatbank.

Polityka

The same week that Kievskie Viedomosti stopped publishing, Polityka announced that the printing house Pressa Ukrainy was refusing to resume printing the Kyiv-based weekly.

Last November, the state printing house received a Pechersk District Court order banning it from printing Polityka. A Kyiv City Court decision early last month reversed that ruling.

Editor-in-chief Oleh Liashko said the newspaper has paid Pressa Ukrainy an advance of 28,000 hrv (about $7,200 U.S.) and provided it with 25 tons of paper. Mr. Liashko said repeated letters and visits failed to extract any explanation from Pressa Ukrainy. "From February 8 we have all legal right to put out the newspaper, but unfortunately to date the newspaper hasn't been issued [by Pressa Ukrainy]. Why? Because Pressa Ukrainy, with which we have worked for three years, now refuses to renew the contract with the newspaper for 1999 and has given absolutely no explanation for that refusal," he said.

While Mr. Liashko said he believes the presidential administration is behind the move, an unnamed Pressa Ukrainy spokesman said the company's decision was motivated by the newspaper's financial unreliability. Last year, the spokesman said Polityka twice broke its contract by stopping publication.

In the meantime, Polityka is due to restart publication under a new agreement reached with another publishing house.

NART

On the same day that Kievskie Viedomosti suspended publication, the private TV channel National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (NART) was taken off the air, its owners claim, because of its independent political stance. Volodymyr Tsendrovskyi, president of the Ukrainian TV Union and a founder of NART, predicted that this will be only the first in a chain of private channels to be taken off the air. He called it a "rehearsal for political censorship and economic dictatorship in the Ukrainian TV market."

Mr. Tsendrovskyi admitted that NART owes 160,000 hrv (about $41,000 U.S.) to the Ukrainian Radio and Television Broadcasting Corp., the state company that controls Ukraine's airwaves. But he argued that the figure is insignificant compared with the debts of many other broadcasting companies, such as the state-run television and radio channels, which he said owe the state broadcasters 62 million hrv.

NART resumed broadcasting on February 23 after reaching an agreement on paying off its debt. But NART officials still maintain they are victims of political harassment since no other broadcasters owing debts have been taken off the air, even temporarily.

STB

The private television network STB recently issued a statement to President Leonid Kuchma, claiming its executives have been attacked or threatened and requesting the government to increase protection.

An STB official said that in the most recent incident armed attackers broke into the Kyiv apartment of STB's commercial director and forced the man and his pregnant wife to the floor at gunpoint. In searching the apartment, the gunmen ignored money and valuables, apparently looking for documents.

The official says harassment intensified after the network broadcast investigative reports about illegal deals in Ukraine's lucrative industries that allegedly involve powerful business groups close to the government.

Lily Hyde is a Kyiv-based contributor to RFE/RL.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 21, 1999, No. 12, Vol. LXVII

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