Shuster and Yelizarov said they would hold a hunger strike until Shuster gets back his permit.
The service reversed its decision to issue a permit to Shuster, which was made earlier this month.
The State Employment Service’s Kyiv branch said in a statement that the permit had been annulled because Shuster had failed to inform the agency about a criminal case opened by the State Fiscal Service against him.
Shuster said he would keep working without a permit.
“This government doesn’t tolerate any criticism. They’re fighting with a mirror. Even if they break our mirror, others will emerge“
He said he believed the authorities would “crack down on all journalists who are trying to tell the truth” and added that he had faced the same problem in Russia.
“(President) Petro Poroshenko will become a dictator if society allows him to (crack down on the media),” Shuster said. “... The country is plunging into authoritarianism again."
Shuster said that he "used to believe him but (Poroshenko) has turned out not to be a European man."
"He has a Stalinist worldview combined with offshore companies," he added.
Commenting on the report, Poroshenko wrote on Facebook that “free speech is one of Ukraine’s biggest achievements after the Revolution of Dignity and is the cornerstone of democracy.”
“As the guarantor of the Constitution, I have protected and will protect free speech in any of its manifestations,” he said. “That’s why I hope that the relevant agencies will resolve the incident with journalist Savik Shuster as soon as possible.”
Shuster has repeatedly accused the Presidential Administration and State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, an ally of Poroshenko, of pressuring him due to his criticism of the authorities.
“In 2004 Savik Shuster’s show on the NTV channel in Russia was banned by (President Vladimir) Putin, who was only starting to establish total censorship in the country at that time,” Yegor Firsov, an ex-lawmaker from the Poroshenko Bloc, wrote on Facebook. “… In what way is Poroshenko better than Putin, who also banned Savik’s shows and expelled him from the country? We also effectively have censorship now.”
(Shuster’s show) "is not involved in anti-state propaganda, but some politicians don’t like it,” Yury Butusov, chief editor of the censor.net news site and presenter of a show on Shuster's 3S TV channel, wrote on Facebook. “It is undoubtedly a political decision approved by President Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko hopes that Shuster will try to reach some agreement to avoid losing his business.”
Butusov argued that it was a direct attack on free speech.
A week after Nasirov was grilled over corruption accusations on the Shuster Live show in September, the State Fiscal Service launched an inspection against the Shuster Live studio.
Nasirov’s critics have published documents showing that he has undeclared apartments in London and accused him of reviving the corrupt schemes of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s allies. He denies the accusations.
The State Fiscal Service has been inspecting the Shuster Live Studio since September and opened a tax evasion investigation against it. The corruption accusations against Nasirov were also discussed on the Shuster Live show on April 22.
Shuster has denied the tax agency's accusations and said the inspections were being carried out with numerous procedural violations.
- Earlier this month the Verkhovna Rada's free speech committee recognized the State Fiscal Service's inspections as illegal pressure on Shuster.
- In December Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, ex-head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said that the country's intelligence agencies had received an order to look for compromising materials on Shuster anywhere in the world.
- Shuster also said in October that he believed cable television provider Volya’s decision to remove his show from a cheap package was a result of pressure by the authorities.
- In September television channel 1+1 took the Shuster Live show off the air minutes before it was supposed to be broadcast, explaining that it did not want to escalate the political crisis. Shuster said then that the decision had been made due to an agreement between Ihor Kolomoisky, the channel’s owner, and the Presidential Administration.
Since then, the show has not been broadcast on any major television channel. Shuster had to switch to his own channel, 3S TV.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]
