Reformer of the week: Maryna Solovyova
Maryna Solovyova is a member of the Public Integrity Council, a civil society watchdog that oversees the ongoing competition to select judges for a new Supreme Court.
In recent weeks pro-government bloggers and media, including TV channel Inter, have launched a campaign to smear the Public Integrity Council as part of the authorities’ efforts to discredit civil society.
Critics argue that the Supreme Court competition is being manipulated to promote corrupt judges and government loyalists, and that the judicial reform is being faked.
As of June 22, the High Qualification Commission had officially overridden 76 percent of the Public Integrity Council’s 58 vetoes on Supreme Court candidates deemed to be corrupt or dishonest. Previously the commission preliminarily ignored 82 percent of the Public Integrity Council’s 140 vetoes.
Candidates given the green light by the commission include judges who could not explain the origin of their wealth and have insulted journalists, and ones who have undeclared property and have acquired assets in Crimea after its annexation by Russia.
Another blow to judicial reform came when the Verkhovna Rada on June 22 approved a bill to appoint judges of the Constitutional Court without a transparent competition.
Anti-reformer of the week: Vasyl Hrytsak
Vasyl Hrytsak, chief of Ukraine’s SBU security service, on June 15 issued a statement lambasting what he called “the fifth column” in Ukrainian media.
Hrytsak’s statement comes amid a large-scale campaign by the authorities to attack and discredit critics of the government by labelling all of them, including the most pro-Ukrainian ones, as agents of the Kremlin.
In a militant tone resembling Soviet propaganda, Hrytsak proposed adopting legislation to introduce criminal penalties for media involved in “hybrid warfare.” He also called for a “pact of media solidarity” between pro-government media — a measure that reminded critics of the Soviet Union’s slavish journalist unions.
“The fifth column, which was prepared by the enemy long before its open attack on Ukraine, has not been destroyed completely yet,” he said. “In its dirty work, (the fifth column) is cleverly manipulating our nation’s highest democratic value — the freedom of speech.”
Meanwhile, the SBU has been accused of covering up for pro-Russian officials among its own ranks and is still refusing to provide access to its officers’ asset declarations both to the public and other state bodies, claiming the information is a state secret. This is seen by its critics as an effort to hide corrupt wealth.
