Ukraine enjoys far greater freedom of speech than many of its neighbors, ruled by authoritarians or dictators. But journalists in Ukraine still marked World Press Freedom Day on May 3 in a climate of beatings, harassment by prosectors and other threats that prevent them from doing their jobs.
On top of these problems, Russia’s war against Ukraine has given the nation’s leaders a pretext for censorship and crackdown on government critics.
Ukraine has nothing to brag about, according to the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, an international watchdog that ranks Ukraine 101st out of 180 countries, barely unchanged from the previous year.
Johann Bihr, head of the Reporters Without Borders’ Bureau for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, called the low position “a disappointing rank” for Ukraine.
“Ukraine has to stick to the democratic values that were at the heart of the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution,” Bihr said, referring to the uprising that prompted President Viktor Yanukovych to flee to Rusisa.
Attacks, no justice
Ukraine has a long record of violence against journalists. There has recently been an increase in the number of attacks.
“We can’t attribute it to any political force,” said Oksana Romanyuk, executive director of the Kyiv-based Institute of Mass Information. “We hope it’s a temporary rise and it will drop. As we are approaching an election year, I predict there will be more mass protests and more journalists will be at risk.”
Harassment takes different forms.
It can be physical attacks, such as the one suffered by journalists from Schemes, an investigative program of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Ukrainian service, last November. The crew were assaulted by bodyguards of oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk as they filmed his arrival at Kyiv’s Ihor Sikorsky airport from Russia on his private jet.
Later, Medvedchuk, a member of the Trilateral Contact group on the Donbas peace talks and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the journalists of trying to sabotage a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia’s occupation authorities in the Donbas.
If the story aired, Medvedchuk threatened to tell families of Ukrainian prisoners that journalists were to blame for their loved ones staying in prison. The story aired.
Often, the pressure on journalists exploits patriotism.
Since Russia launched its war in the Donbas and annexed Crimea in 2014, journalists have not only risked their lives at the war front, they have become targets in an ideological war.
Media watchdogs have criticized and called the Ukrainian authorities to take action against the Myrotvorets database of so-called enemies of Ukraine. In 2016, the volunteer-run website, which enjoys top officials’ support, acquired a list of all journalists who sought accreditation from Russian occupation authorities. Myrotvorets published the journalists’ names and labeled them as traitors. Some on the list said they had received threatening phone calls.
In other cases, pressure takes the form of covert harassment under the pretext of security measures.
This was what happened to several female journalists who were forced to go through humiliating security checks before attending a court hearing in Kyiv in February where President Petro Poroshenko testified in the treason trial of Yanukovych. The reporters said that police officers forced them to undress above their waists.
Pressure can also take the form of a simple denial of justice. In Ukraine, attacks on journalists, including murders, often go unsolved.
The investigations into the murders of two Ukrainska Pravda journalists — Georgiy Gongadze in 2000 and Pavel Sheremet in 2016, have stalled.
Nearly every investigative media project has seen its reporters attacked in recent years — including reporters from Schemes, Nashi Groshi and Slidstvo.info.
In some cases, the attackers are public servants.
This was the case when the members of the State Guard assaulted reporters from Schemes as they were trying to film guests arriving at the wedding of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s son in September. The State Guard said its employees “stumbled over a twig” and fell on the crew’s cameraman, throwing him on the ground and causing a concussion. The police never completed their investigation.
In other cases, attacks targeted property. In February, an unknown man set fire to the office of investigative website Chetverta Vlada in Rivne, a regional center of 250,000 people, 320 kilometers west of Kyiv. The arsonist has never been found.
Last December, Yuriy Krysin received a four-year suspended sentence with a two-year probation period for the fatal beating and shooting Vesti journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy. The attack on Veremiy was classified as hooliganism, and Krysin was released.
“When attacks on journalists are not investigated, it has an intimidating effect on journalists and encourages more attacks on them,” said Bihr from Reporters Without Borders.
Media ownership
Financial pressures strangle local independent media. A 2016 study by the Institute of Mass Information and Reporters Without Borders revealed that three-quarters of Ukrainians watch television stations that belong to just four oligarchs.
Media organizations registered as non-governmental organizations and running on grants are also under threat. Despite international criticism, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, has not revoked the law obliging anti-graft activists and non-governmental organizations to declare their income and assets in the same way as public officials.
Foreign journalists
Despite existing restrictions to freedom of speech and failures to protect the rights of journalists, Ukraine is doing far better compared to other former Soviet states.
For journalists from oppressive regimes like Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan, notorious for their abysmal human rights record Ukraine is a safe haven. Thanks to the visa-free regime, the commonly spoken Russian language and proximity to Europe, prosecuted and exiled journalists from former Soviet republics can escape persecution in their home countries and seek refuge in Ukraine.
But sometimes, instead of asylum, they face extradition.
Last year, Uzbek journalist Narzullo Okhundjonov was held in Kyiv, despite suffering from a serious condition affecting his eyesight, as he waited for a court to decide whether to send him back to Uzbekistan.
Kazakh blogger Zhanar Akhmet found herself in the same situation. She fled criminal charges in Kazakhstan after criticizing President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s government, and was arrested in Kyiv.
Most recently, authorities detained an exiled Azerbaijani journalist with Dutch citizenship, Fikret Hureynli. Prosecutors seized his passport and prevented him from leaving the country.
