U.S. provides $750,000 for media development fund (04/01/01)

U.S. provides $750,000 for media development fund

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual on March 16 announced the extension of $750,000 for a Ukraine media development fund to help resolve problems limiting press freedom in the country.

Mr. Pascual said one reason for the special fund was that the United States has discerned a consensus at all levels of the Ukrainian government that a free press is essential for the country's further development and needs to be further evolved.

"The Gongadze case and all the issues that have arisen around it have only heightened concern about whether an independent media exists and what needs to be done to secure it," explained the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

The fund - intended to support the development of a free and independent media in Ukraine - will provide a wide range of support to Ukrainian journalists, media organizations and other non-governmental groups. It is designed to address a number of concerns in Ukraine's current media environment.

Mr. Pascual identified four issues that cast a shadow over whether a truly free press exists in Ukraine: the roles carried out by certain state organs, such as the militia, the tax authorities and other regulatory bodies, the degree of their transparency and accountability, and the work they do, intended or not, on curtailing media independence; the relationship of owners of media outlets to the country's leadership and whether working relationships among the owners, editors and reporters allow for independent and honest journalism to take place; the amount of independence and transparency of the courts in arriving at decisions, as well as the role they play at times as a government tool of intimidation; and the amount of professionalism among journalists, which might allow them to avoid falling into compromising situations.

Mr. Pascual said the grant would focus on developing new tools for journalists and media outlets and on sensitizing government officials to the need for transparency and responsiveness, while also working to provide an improved environment for the media in Ukraine. Four specific goals identified in the project are to: improve the legal, administrative and tax environment for the Ukrainian media; expand the use of the Internet as a news and information tool; improve professional standards among journalists; and increase direct support for the Ukrainian media and non-governmental agencies.

National Deputy Oleksander Zinchenko, chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information, expressed full support for the new program, according to Interfax-Ukraine, and said he did not consider such an effort intrusion into the country's internal affairs.

"We welcome everything promoting the development of non-governmental based press" said Mr. Zinchenko, who also heads the Social Democratic (United) faction in the Verkhovna Rada.

However, Ihor Lubchenko, the head of the National Council of Journalists of Ukraine, a relic of the Soviet era, said the new program only shows the state's financial and policy inadequacies in developing an information space.

"We are either begging for help from other countries to establish economic stability, or this superpower is expressing its desire to pay for our freedom of expression," said Mr. Lubchenko. "We are going to feel this slap in the face of the Ukrainian government for a long time."

Mr. Pascual said that while the program is effective immediately, many of its mechanisms have yet to be developed. He stated that one key element would be partnerships of Western media outlets with their Ukrainian partners.

"We look to you to develop creatively how these partnerships will work," Mr. Pascual told reporters.

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