Live News - A Survival Guide - International Federation of Journalists

Live News — A Survival Guide for Journalistsand two months later his headless body was found in a wood nearKiev. A former bodyguard produced a tape recording implicatingUkrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who dismissed the tape as aforgery. Despite Ukraine’s refusal to work with an independentinternational inquiry, international pressure has been brought tobear. A Ukrainian parliamentary ad-hoc commission in 2002 evensuggested that the President and other senior state officials mightbe arrested and charged.In 2002, a new general prosecutor was appointed and inSeptember 2002 protests were held in Kiev and in many countriesaround the world to mark the second anniversary of Gongadze’sdisappearance. The Ukrainian chargé d’affaires in London was oneof several to meet delegations of journalists pressing for moreaction. He told the National Union of Journalists of the UK andIreland: “The issue is at the top of our agenda, too. GyorgyGongadze is remembered by our people.” Jeremy Dear, GeneralSecretary of the NUJ, said afterwards: “Institutions are movingbecause people are protesting. Let’s step up the pressure.”Southern CaucasusAn IFJ report Promoting Independent and Ethical Journalism in theSouthern Caucasus, produced with the support of the Council ofEurope, detailed violence and intimidation against journalists inAzerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. The report also highlightedexamples where journalists had stood together for their rights.In Azerbaijan, in 2001, three papers were closed by the courtsand the editors were imprisoned under Article 19 of the Press Law.The editors were released after a united campaign by journalists’associations and the Union of Journalists, backed by internationalpressure. The law used to close the papers was later rescinded.In March 2002, police beat demonstrators and journalists at anopposition rally — not an unusual event. After protests and a discussionwith a minister, the government agreed to an investigation.The minister suggested journalists send a lawyer to representthem on a monitoring group. Further demonstrations are to bevideotaped, and the Baku Press Club and the Yeni Nesil JournalistsUnion will issue fluorescent jackets to journalists.Freelance journalist Ronan Brady, who wrote the IFJ report, said:“The conditions under which Azeri journalists work are deeply disheartening.Everything the government could do to divide and isolatethem, it has done. …But it seems to me that the sense of soli-Union pressespolice for actionRepresentatives of India’sNational Union ofJournalists and thepresident of the regionaljournalists’ group met theDirector General of Police inthe northern state ofHaryana to press for athorough investigation intothe killing of Chaterpatti,editor of the Hindi PooraSach newspaper.Chaterpatti died in NewDelhi in November 2002, amonth after he was shot inSirsa, in Haryana. Theshooting was thought to belinked to Chaterpatti’sinvestigations into sexualabuse at the headquartersof a religious sect in Sirsa.109