Kyiv court closes down newspaper for fomenting inter-ethnic strife (02/15/04)

Kyiv court closes down newspaper for fomenting inter-ethnic strife

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report

Judge Iryna Saprykina of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court in Kyiv on January 28 ordered the closure of the opposition newspaper Silski Visti after finding it guilty of fomenting inter-ethnic strife in last year's article on Jews in Ukraine. The article, titled "Jews in Ukraine Today: Reality Without Myths," was penned by Vasyl Yaremenko, whom Ukrainian media identify as a professor of the Interregional Academy for Personnel Management.

The court's ruling has caused an outcry of indignation on the part of the opposition - Our Ukraine, the Socialist Party and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc - which see the presidential administration as an agent behind the closure of the largest anti-government newspaper, which has a circulation of some 520,000, in the presidential-election year. While not denying that the closure may play into the hands of the government, many Ukrainian observers agree, however, that the court's decision is fully supportable. Mr. Yaremenko's article, which was published by Silski Visti on November 30, 2003, can doubtless be categorized even by non-jurists as rabidly anti-Semitic.

Mr. Yaremenko's lengthy piece of writing is in fact a follow-up to one he published in Silski Visti on November 15, 2002 - "The Myth of Ukrainian Anti-Semitism." Mr. Yaremenko copiously quotes from letters of those readers of his first article who supported his point of view. His main thesis is that Jews in Ukraine are a privileged national minority and actually run the country by controlling its mass media, finances and basic economic sectors.

Any attempts to oppose this situation or even to point out that such a state of affairs exists, Mr. Yaremenko argues, are without delay presented in the media controlled and/or owned by Jewish oligarchs as manifestations of Ukrainian anti-Semitism and Judophobia. All television channels in Ukraine, Mr. Yaremenko says, are in the hands of "Zionists," and Ukrainians are forced to feed on "informational and spiritual products of the Jewish ideological kitchen."

He includes oligarchs Viktor Medvedchuk, Hryhorii Surkis, Viktor Pinchuk, Vadym Rabynovych and Yukhym Zvahilskyi in a much longer list of "Zionists" in Ukraine. According to Mr. Yaremenko, "nearly one-third" of the Verkhovna Rada deputies are Jews. He satirizes the Ukrainian Parliament by saying that it is now in the process of transforming itself into an "Israeli Knesset" or Ukraine's "central synagogue."

Much more aggressive are Mr. Yaremenko's "historical" excursions. He claims that Jews "organized" the tragic 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine to take "revenge" on millions of Ukrainians. Moreover, Mr. Yaremenko asserts that in 1937-1938 millions of Ukrainians were killed by the NKVD, which was run by "leaders of Zionism" and consisted of 99 percent Jews. He also says that during World War II Ukraine was invaded by German fascists along with a 400,000-strong "horde of Jewish SS men."

A lawsuit against Silski Visti was brought to court by an organization called the International Anti-fascist Committee. The newspaper argued in court that Mr. Yaremenko's article - which was a portion of his previously published book - was printed as a separate leaflet in addition to the main issue to advertise the book.

Under the press law, the editors claimed, newspapers are not responsible for the content of advertisements they print. But Judge Saprykina told the January 31-February 6 issue of Zerkalo Nedeli that there was no mention whatsoever in the November 30, 2003, issue of Silski Visti that Mr. Yaremenko's text is an advertisement. Judge Saprykina added that Ukraine's press law unambiguously stipulates the closure of publications that stir up racial, ethnic or religious antagonisms.

Judge Saprykina also said her ruling does not mean that Silski Visti will cease to appear immediately - appeals against her verdict may prolong the life of the newspaper for at least a year, if not overturn it altogether.

Apart from the problem of anti-Semitism and that of restrictions on the freedom of expression in Ukraine's public life, the Silski Visti case has also brought to the fore the issue of the democratic credentials of the Ukrainian opposition. It has not passed unnoticed by Ukrainian observers that the opposition, while protesting the closure of "Silski visti," did not touch upon the content of Mr. Yaremenko's outpourings.

A statement signed by Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko says the closure is a "manifestation of totalitarian policy" of the government vis-à-vis undesirable media and accuses the court of following instructions of the authorities to eliminate the opposition media outlet. "We condemn the cynical reprisal against the opposition newspaper and express our support for the 'Silski visti' editors," reads the last phrase of Our Ukraine's statement. And the statement did not include a single word of reference to, let alone condemnation of, Mr. Yaremenko's shameful article.

It is not difficult to guess that if Mr. Yushchenko remains silent on Mr. Yaremenko's anti-Semitic escapade in Silski Visti, he will risk, at best, losing sympathy and support of many circles in the West that see him as a Ukrainian exponent of Western democratic values and principles. At worst, he may be accused of harboring anti-Semitism himself and trying to exploit it for his political purposes. In a situation where the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians live in glaring poverty and some of the country's most notable and fabulously rich oligarchs are of Jewish origin, it cannot be ruled out that anti-Semitism may become for some parties in the Our Ukraine bloc a political tool for mobilizing support in the presidential election. Then, the image of Mr. Yushchenko as a rabid nationalist - which is being laboriously presented to the electorate by the Communists and pro-government forces alike - may also be supplemented with some anti-Semitic features.

[Editor's note: RFE/RL Newsline reported that Mr. Yushchenko later released a second statement in which he said that Silski Visti needs"to find courage to apologize to those people whose ethnic sentiments were offended by its publications." He added, "There should be no discussion about this apology." At the same time he repeated his assertion that the court, by ignoring other legal possibilities for dealing with the newspaper, was following an order from higher up whose intent was to destroy the largest opposition paper in the country.]

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