I have heard a lot of interesting stuff about Victor Yanukovych’s first year of presidency in recent days. And often influential politicians in various countries base their conclusions and suggestions on the ratings of specialized Western organizations.
Former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine Stephen Pifer and William Taylor in their op-ed in the New York Times on March 1 quoted last year’s report by Freedom House which reduced Ukraine’s rating from “free” to “partially free.”
French Ambassador Jacques Faure in his interview with Dzerkalo Tyzhnia quotes reports by Reporters Without Borders. This organization issued an annual map of freedom In Ukraine, where Ukraine was marked red, meaning it’s in trouble, along with China and Iraq.
There are multiple other ratings, including the ones issued by Ukrainian organizations, such as the Democratic Initiatives Foundation. This organization polled a number of experts on Feb. 10-20, which also ended up with a negative assessment of Yanukovych’s Ukraine.
I am not denying anyone the right to assess the activity of one politician or another, or the state of affairs in one country or another. Every one of those organizations has developed its own criteria for evaluation, and each one of them has a reputation and history of activities, due to which they gained authority.
But, at the same time, I will be pretty honest in saying that many people in Ukraine, and I am one of them, consider these ratings to be something that should be taken into account, but no more than that. And I certainly do not consider these ratings to be the full truth.
West ignored abuses under Yushchenko
– Viacheslav Pikhovshek.
Undoubtedly, Freedom House is a very respectful organization, and so is Reporters without Borders.
But let’s remember our recent history and their record of it:
April 2007. Then President Victor Yushchenko’s decision to disband the parliament was accompanied by an unprecedented dismissal of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The head of state dismissed Valeriy Pshenychniy and Suzanna Stanyk, judges of this court.
The latter was to present a report on the legitimacy of Yushchenko’s decree disbanding the parliament. Right before Stanyk’s dismissal, the Security Service of Ukraine found compromising information about her and published it – all timed very suspiciously.
On May 24, 2007, the general prosecutor’s office becomes an arena for the clash of two law enforcement bodies, the special unit of Interior Ministry called Titan and the State Guard. As a result, Yushchenko issued a decree making all law enforcement bodies report to him.
Why am I reminding you of all this? These kinds of facts are too solid to just be brushed off. However, neither Freedom House nor any other Western institution (not to mention Western governments) considered it necessary in 2007 to publicly condemn the actions of Yushchenko and his circle. They simply pretended that they noticed nothing.
As far as freedom of the press goes, at the end of May 2009, four key anchor people were dismissed from 1+1 TV channel, while the channel itself was reoriented toward crime reporting in the news.
On June 12, 2009, the anchor of Novy Kanal, Volodymyr Pavlyuk, was dismissed after airing the video of then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko saying “Propalo vse,” or “Everything is lost.” [A video clip shot before an official recording of her speech as a prime minister, in which she prays and argues with support staff about the text of her speech that disappeared from her monitor].
On Sept. 24, 2009, Pechersk district court in Kyiv banned “any unscrupulous information about Yulia Tymoshenko’s activities.” On Nov. 13, Pechersk district court in Kyiv dismissed an attempt by STB reporter Olha Chervakova to start a criminal case against parliament deputy Oleksandr Tkachenko”, who grabbed and then threw down her microphone.
On Nov. 28, 2008, internet journalist Nazar Tsapko was questioned by the State Security Service regarding his articles on daily.ua website.
All these incidents remain unnoticed by the Reporters Without Borders. You can check it yourself – there was not a single reaction.
I once heard that a Western politician once said: “My friends get everything. My enemies get the wrath of law.” Perhaps it can be rephrased to say that friends get everything, while enemies get the wrath of standards of international organizations.
Viacheslav Pikhovshek is a former chief editor of news on 1+1 TV channel. He was also speech writer for former President Leonid Kuchma.
