EDITORIAL: Gongadze and the press (10/01/00)

EDITORIAL

Gongadze and the press

Heorhii Gongadze is not the first Ukrainian journalist to disappear. Other journalists investigating corruption have gone missing and turned up dead, among them Vadym Boyko, Petro Shevchenko and Borys Derevianko. Mr. Gongadze does not fit that category, yet. But there are few in Ukraine who believe he will surface alive.

The case of Mr. Gongadze has taken on particular resonance in Ukraine and within the international journalism community because he was young, energetic, brash and the founder of one of Ukraine's first Internet newspapers. But even more important, at the moment that he vanished into thin air after leaving his office to deliver keys to his wife and twin 3-year-old girls, he was leading the fight against those who wish to limit press freedoms in Ukraine. And by doing it through the Internet he was giving the fight international exposure.

One of the most worrisome aspects of the Gongadze case is that those very individuals who would prefer a submissive and obedient press executed his disappearance. Another worry, characteristic of news coverage of past acts of violence and intimidation against the Ukrainian media and politicians, is that the clamor and outrage surrounding the event is sure to quiet down quickly. Journalists will show even less inclination to ask the tough questions of politicians. Editors will listen ever more closely to late-night telephone calls suggesting that they don't run this or that news story, and more newspapers will face tax police scrutiny when they don't echo the official government position in their opinions.

That is exactly what those who did away with Mr. Gongadze would like to see. The perpetrators know that public attention is short and press coverage fickle. They count on it. So they do their dirty deeds and then lay low. And life, for them, goes on.

It happened after the death of Ivan Hetman, the popular banker and politician who was slain as he entered his apartment building. It happened in the mysterious death of Mr. Shevchenko, the Chernihiv-based journalist who was found hanged in a warehouse in the industrial section of Kyiv. These cases have yet to be solved - and there is no reason to believe they ever will be.

This latest case of a missing journalist is destined for the same ending, unless journalists and politicians keep the pressure on in news broadcasts and newsprint. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has already sent several signals that it is irritated by all the hubbub surrounding Mr. Gongadze's mysterious disappearance. It is not the first time that militia officials have expressed impatience with explantions that are a bit more conspiratorial than their own or theories that may implicate government officials, albeit remotely. That is why they wanted us to believe that Mr. Shevchenko committed suicide, that Mr. Derevianko was involved with criminal elements, and, now, that Mr. Gongadze suffered the wrath of a mistress abandoned or a loan shark ignored.

When reporters gathered before the Ministry of Internal Affairs headquarters on September 21 to demand information on the Gongadze investigation from tight-lipped militia officials, they were told they had no right to flash their bright lights and point their cameras and tape recorders at an information officer who was not prepared for the encounter. The press in Ukraine, you see, is not free to do its job.

Vice Minister of Interior Affairs Mykola Dzhyha eventually agreed to speak with the press, but then again expressed the disdain that many law enforcement officials in Ukraine have for members of the mass media. With the tired expression and weary, patronizing voice that militia officials regularly don when making public statements, Mr. Dzhyha said the investigation was not pursuing political motives for the disappearance because, [Mr. Gongadze] "is not an influential political or public figure."

Well, if the public outcry, the formation of a parliamentary ad hoc committee and President Leonid Kuchma's request for daily updates does not mean that Mr. Gongadze had some influence over political affairs, then what does? And even if he didn't, the disappearance of a member of the fifth estate - especially one who published controversial items of a political nature, cannot be quickly dismissed as being outside the political realm.

This ridiculous public uttering by Mr. Dzhyha is only one of several moments in the Gongadze affair that leaves one wondering just why law enforcement officials find it so difficult to cooperate with the public in this investigation. It also forces one to consider whether there may be something to cover up. And if not, then the only thing left to believe is that the whole thing has been bumbled horribly thus far - not only politically but criminologically as well.

Consider this: Ukraine's top cop, Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko, decides to ignore a request from the Verkhovna Rada that he appear before the full parliamentary body to answer questions on the disappearance of the young journalist. He opts instead to travel to Kharkiv for the opening of the police academy school year instead, while sending Mr. Dzhyha to face lawmakers' questions. The Verkhovna Rada refuses to listen to Mr. Dzhyha. After Mr. Dzhyha's statements to the press, Mr. Kravchenko corrects the public record and acknowledges that political motives still are being considered.

Leonid Derkach, director of the Security Service of Ukraine, announces that Mr. Gongadze had been seen in a café that he frequented regularly two days after his disappearance. An investigation by a local television crew turns up no names or faces of individuals willing to claim they saw the missing journalist.

As much as law enforcement officials may want the Gongadze case to vanish, much as Mr. Gongadze has, that will not happen. The Kyiv press, united as it rarely has been, is determined to keep Mr. Gongadze's name and face in the public domain, and to keep pressuring politicians and law enforcement officials to either find the young reporter or give an accurate public reckoning of what happened to him.

The disappearance has also brought much-needed international attention to the critical state of Ukraine's mass media. Prominent international watchdog organizations such as Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists have gotten involved and have demanded better safeguards for members of the mass media. There is a new domestic and international dialogue on Ukrainian press freedoms.

There is little hope that Mr. Gongadze will be found alive. One can only hope that his tragic case will help achieve what he so tirelessly pursued in the last months before his disappearance: that Ukraine's media will be free to gather and publish information according to Western ethics and standards, and without untenable sanctions or intimidation from either the public or the private sectors. That is what Mr. Gongadze was fighting for; his colleagues and all rights advocates must continue that struggle.

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