In the three years since the massive demonstrations, which ensured that the fraudulent presidential elections orchestrated by Viktor Yanokovych were overturned, there has been a lot of revisionism and questioning about whether the Orange Revolution actually achieved anything, or whether it just replaced one group of corrupt politicians with another.
Whenever I am asked about the results of the Orange Revolution, I always refer back to the issue of free press. For any journalist or editor,and I hope for readers too, it is night and day how the situation concerning the free press has radically changed for the better since President Leonid Kuchma left office.
The recent ranking by Reporters Without Borders simply confirms what any journalist knows. In the Paris-based international media watchdog’s 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, Ukraine jumped 13 spots to 92 of 169 countries in terms of press freedom gains, compared with last year.
Indeed, it only takes a minute to recall how bleak the situation was under President Kuchma. For anyone working on television, there was a strict unofficial censorship, organized around the issuance of so-called temnyky, which outlined the official position of the government.
Then-Presidential Administration Head Viktor Medvedchuk constantly called in television owners to keep them in line. Fearing reprisals, almost all television stations followed an unofficial blackout of the presidential campaign of then-presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.
A similar situation followed in the press.
Newspapers were under constant fear of closure,as what happened with Silski Visti,for breaking a law on inciting racial hatred, but what was more likely the case, for providing too aggressive an opposition to President Kuchma.
In those dark days, encompassed by Kuchma’s authoritarian rule, and continuing the legacy of the earlier totalitarian regime, fear of repression ran high and press freedom was at an abysmal level. It got to the point that in 2001, Kuchma ended up on a list published by Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists of the top 10 worst enemies of press alongside such dictators as Cuba’s Fidel Castro and North Korean President Kim Jong Il.
Amazingly, in the course of two years, the entire situation has changed.
First, TV stations have become a fountain of diverse political views on all topics. Meanwhile, the newsstands are cluttered with new titles. Even better, politicians are constantly clamoring and calling our editors (KP Media publications Korrespondent, Novynar, the Kyiv Post) to give interviews and see if we would consider them for a photo shoot.
Under Kuchma, every phone call from a government figure presaged a possible tax inspection or questioned our rights to publish.
Today, the likelihood is far greater that a government functionary wants to be sure that we received their latest press release, or to let us know he is ready to give an exclusive interview.
In looking at what caused this revolution in freedom, the most shocking part is that in terms of legal framework, governance or organization, nothing has actually changed. No new laws were passed, no new structures were put into place, no minister was placed in charge of ensuring free press, and no committees were organized.
In fact, the only thing that has changed is that President Yushchenko showed a firm commitment to ending the problem of lack of free press in Ukraine. From day one of his presidency, he made a clear statement that the old way of doing things– the temnyky, ordered tax inspections, and other such infringements on free press – would end.
From there, journalists, editors, and the businesses behind them seized the initiative and ensured that a free press would continue to flower in Ukraine.
Not bad progress in several years’ time.
I believe the lessons learned in progressively resolving the crisis of press freedom in Ukraine could be useful in allowing the government to tackle the plague of corruption that is enveloping the country.
From the tax inspectors driving around Kyiv in their Audis to the inner workings of the Kyiv city government, it is clear to anyone who has been in the capital long enough (and it doesn’t take that long to notice) that Ukraine is diseased by a plague of corruption.
In fact, it is probably safe to say that the easiest way to get rich in this town is to join the government. I have heard many commentators say that there is no way for Ukraine to tackle this plague.
Perhaps, as with the issue of press freedom, nothing in fact needs to change. No new laws need to be entered on the books. Ukraine’s anti-corruption laws are already quite strong. No new minister or committee needs to be appointed or set up to write recommendations.
Simply, a leader, hopefully the country’s new prime minister, or perhaps President Yushchenko himself, needs to raise his voice loudly and clearly declare that no corruption will be allowed, and that jail awaits those who do allow it.
Sometimes, the most difficult problems have the easiest solutions.
Jed Sunden is the publisher of the Kyiv Post.
