Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009europe and central asia: ukrainealso convened a hearing on the issue and awarded its 2009 Sakharov Prize forFreedom of Thought to Estemirova’s organization, Memorial.Speaking at a reception for journalists and civil society activists in Moscow inOctober, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted impunityin journalist murders, quoted CPJ’s research, and emphasized the importance oftransparency in government, the rule of law, and public trust in state institutions.“When violence like this goes unpunished in any society,” Clinton said, “it’s underminingthe rule of law, chills public discourse, which is, after all, the lifebloodof an open society, and diminishes the public’s confidence and trust in their owngovernment.”The same month, the U.N. Human Rights Committee condemned Russia’sfailure to protect journalists and human rights defenders from violent retaliationfor their work. The committee evaluates compliance with the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights and issues non-binding prescriptions. Ina set of recommendations to the Russian government, published on October 30,the committee said it was “concerned at the alarming incidence of threats, violentassaults, and murders of journalists and human rights defenders in the RussianFederation, which had created a climate of fear and a chilling effect on the media,and regretted the lack of effective measures taken to protect the right to life andsecurity of those persons.” The committee gave Moscow one year to update it onwhat it was doing to remedy the record.UKRAINEA deep recession, tensions with neighboring russia, and a comingpresidential election placed greater stress on the country’s already weak and fracturedpolitical leadership. While the media remained freer and more pluralisticthan in most post-Soviet countries, journalists struggled to report on widespreadgovernment corruption and other abuses. A chaotic and sometimes dangerousenvironment for journalists increased the prevalence of self-censorship.Long evaporated—and almost forgotten—was the elation that had sweptthrough the capital, Kyiv, and much of the country after the Orange Revolutionled to the election of reformist President Viktor Yushchenko. While Yushchenkoand Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko halted censorship of the national mediaand tolerated pluralism in news reporting after being propelled to office, internalrivalries created political deadlock and doomed their broader plans for reform.A field of 18 candidates was expected to be on the ballot for the first round ofpresidential voting in January, with Tymoshenko and opposition leader ViktorYanukovych among the contenders.Despite relatively strong laws to guarantee press freedom, the bitter politicalsquabbling in Kyiv left the country’s justice system dysfunctional and politicized.Police failed to act in severalt o p developments»»Broadcast media face strong politicalpressure.»»Ex-Interior Ministry official arrested inGongadze murder.5key statisticYears since the Orange Revolution.Optimism has since dimmed.cases of attacks on journalists.Officers in Kyiv ignored thepleas of photojournalist KirillStremousov in June whenthree security guards attackedhim, breaking his hand anddestroying his camera, accordingto local press reports.Stremousov had apparentlyangered the guards by takingphotos of a car accident. InSeptember, officers failed to intervene when several assailants attacked a televisioncrew from ATV in front of a courthouse in Odessa, smashing their camera,slashing the hand of cameraman Dmitry Dokunov, and striking reporter OlesyaKlintsova on the head with a heavy object, according to local press reports.Authorities made progress in their investigation into the 2000 murder ofGeorgy Gongadze, editor of the muckraking news Web site Ukrainska Pravda.Aleksei Pukach, a former Interior Ministry general who was named a suspectin 2003, was finally arrested in the northeastern region of Zhytomyr on July 21,according to press reports. Pukach, head of the Interior Ministry’s surveillancedepartment at the time of Gongadze’s murder, was charged with murder and wasjailed pending trial.Authorities allege that Pukach strangled the journalist, and Interior Ministrysubordinates then decapitated the body. The other officers were convicted in2008 of participating in Gongadze’s abduction and murder; they were sentencedto 12 to 13 years to prison. The head was not found, although news reports saidPukach had provided new information about its location. Authorities were testingfragments found outside Kyiv in late year to determine whether they could bematched to Gongadze.The arrest of the former high-ranking official, made while U.S. Vice PresidentJoseph Biden was visiting Ukraine, came as the government aggressively courtedU.S. and European support as a counterweight against Russia. The Kremlin hassought to reassert influence in the former Soviet state, in part by leveraging oiland gas supplies.While Gongadze’s family and press freedom advocates praised authoritiesfor arresting Pukach, they criticized prosecutors for not investigating credibleallegations that former President Leonid Kuchma had ordered the killing.190191