monitoring "what is happening to freedom of speech in ukraine. state censorship and crackdown...

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN UKRAINE. State censorship and crackdown on dissent. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN UKRAINE. State censorship and crackdown on dissent.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH SITUATION IN UKRAINE

Over the past 3 years incidents of putting pressure on the media, as well as journalists from government agencies and paramilitary groups are recorded in Ukraine.

Over the period of 2017, such channels as ZIK, Inter, News One and 112 Ukraine faced with similar pressures.

In addition, the National Broadcasting Commission in gross violation of the statutory regulations denied the license renewal for broadcasting to the radio “Vesti” in Kyiv and Kharkiv, the 2 biggest cities. The law-enforcement agencies made searches in the offices of “Vesti”, “Strana.UA” and “Ukrainska Pravda”.

According to the Mass Information Institute, it is recorded:

during 2017188 incidents of putting pressure on journalists or editorial offices of regional mass media.

by May 2017

on average there had been 8-9 similar cases countrywide

In May there were already 24 facts of pressure against journalists

by September more than 40 facts had been detected

On September, 28 Andrushivka district court of Zhytomyr region sentenced the journalists of 17th channel Dmytro Vasylets and Yevhen Tymonin to 9 years of imprisonment. They were accused of information aiding and abetting terrorism for the so-called assistance in creating a YouTube channel “Novorossiya-TV” during a three-day trip to Donetsk in July 2014. In the meantime, there is no such wording as «information” aiding and abetting terrorism in Ukrainian and international legislation.

On August, 2 a blogger and journalist Vasyl Muravytskyi was detained by Security Service of Ukraine.

The General Prosecutor’s Office accused him of treason against the State and inciting ethnic hatred on the basis of his cooperation with the international news agency «Russia Today» and the publication of authors’ columns criticizing the Ukrainian authorities. He can be sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment.

In addition, procedural actions against Ruslan Kotsaba, Oleksandr Bondarchuk and other journalists are being conducted.

In May 2017 presidential decree 133/2017, which imposes sanctions against popular social networks “VKontakte” and “Odnoklassniki” entered into force. Thus, the government restricted access to information for millions of Ukrainians.

In parallel, the Ukrainian special services are persecuting Ukrainians for criticizing the authorities in social networks. In August the officials of Security Service of Ukraine detained nine Ukrainians who criticized the authorities in social networks “VKontakte” and “Odnoklassniki”. The arrests took place in Kyiv, Lviv, Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions. Altogether during 2014-2017 the Security Service of

Ukraine registered 72 criminal proceedings regarding “anti-Ukrainian” activity in social networks. Most of them are connected with criticism of the regime established after the events in Maidan. Based on the materials of pre-trial investigations, more than sixty verdicts were passed.

In the media freedom rating according to Freedom House, Ukraine was ranked number 111 (partially free) in 2017. In the freedom of speech rating of the international organization “Reporters without Borders” as of 2017, Ukraine is ranked number 102.

The human rights group “Uspishna Varta” considered the most high-profile cases on persecution of journalists and bloggers. This presentation was prepared by the volunteers of «Uspishna Varta», who visited the court sessions, communicated with lawyers and relatives of the suspects. In addition, information was analyzed from open sources – registers of judicial decisions and official websites of government authorities.

2


PERSECUTION OF JOURNALISTS

GRAVAMEN:

He is accused of high treason because of conclusion of a standard employment contract with the international Russian editorial office of «International News Agency «Russia Today», where he had his analytical column. In his analytical materials he criticized the Ukrainian government. He prepared a journalistic investigation of a people’s deputy on behalf of Zhytomyr region, who is engaged in illegal production of amber, the materials of this investigation disappeared after the searches and detention of the journalist. The trial has lasted 5 months.

He has been kept without the right of changing the measure of restraint in Zhytomyr confinement cell since the day of his arrest, which crudely violates human rights.

In court he is kept in a cage or «aquarium» without the possibility to sit next to lawyers.

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists (USA), Reporters without Borders (France), the Solidarity Network (Switzerland), the Union of Journalists of Finland came out in support of Muravytskyi.

He is recognized as a political prisoner (Coordination Center for Freedom of Speech) and a prisoner of conscience (Solidarity Network). The UN Department of Human Rights investigates this fact as repressions against journalists.

Interesting facts:

• The materials include a cat named Pampukh, which is con-sidered to be an agent of the Donetsk People’s Republic by the Security Service of Ukraine;

• The Security Service of Ukraine detained Muravytskyi in the hospital, where his son was born the day before his arrest

Vasyl Muravytskyi (33 years old) Ukrainian journalist and blogger

3



GRAVAMEN:

On November 24, 2015 they were detained on charge of information aiding and abetting terrorism (assistance in creating a YouTube channel “Novorossiya-TV”) during a three-day trip to Donetsk in July 2014. The Prosecutor’s Office did not provide convincing evidence of the journalists’ guilt.

Nevertheless, the court delivered a guilty verdict and condemned the journalists to a nine-year imprisonment. This action is at the stage of appeal.

Dmytro Vasylets was the author and presenter of the programs on the 17th channel: “Museum of Information War”, “What information the media keep on the down low.” He supervised the project “Media-Lustration”, where he urged journalists to adhere to standards and not to spark a war, not to call for violence and discord of the Ukrainian people.

Interesting facts:

• There is no such wording as “information” aiding and abet-ting terrorism in Ukrainian and international legislation.

• According to the official ex-planation of the prosecutor’s office – “Luhansk People’s Re-public” and “Donetsk People’s Republic” are not terrorist or-ganizations.

• “Novorossiya-TV” began its broadcasting three months after the accused person’s trip to Donetsk. Prior to this, no channel (content) existed and according to the universal declaration of human rights, no one is responsible for the actions of other people.

• “Novorossiya-TV” broadcast-ing is under way at the mo-ment, expanding its range from the Internet to a satellite channel. The Security Service of Ukraine did not make any attempts to close it down.

Dmytro Vasylets (31 years old) Opposition journalist, presenter, public figure

Evhen Tymonin (33 years old) IT specialist

4



GRAVAMEN:

He was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine in January 2015 on charge of high treason, which provides for 10 to 15 years of imprisonment.

The journalist filmed a video in which he called to ignore illegal mobilization be-cause of fratricidal warfare and without declaration of war. Ruslan was accused of high treason and a disruption of mo-bilization. At the same time, the video was posted only on his social network-ing page.

He spent a year and a half in the confine-ment cell, after which he was fully acquit-ted in the Court of Appeal in the summer of 2016.

The prosecutor’s office insisted on an ap-peal of the decision, and the case was re-ferred for reconsideration to the Court of Appeal of Ivano-Frankivsk region. In Octo-ber 2017, due to another self-disqualifica-tion of the judge, the case was referred to the Kiev Court of Appeal for consideration. Judicial proceedings are still under way.

In Kiev, the journalist is pursued by a radical grouping C14, whose leader previously said that C14 and other radicals are working on a tip of the Security Service of Ukraine. Radicals threaten the journalist, there were several attempts to beat and humiliate Ruslan Kotsaba. The police do not react to these law violations, they do not want to acknowledge a statement about the crime.

Interesting facts:

• Amnesty Internation-al recognized Kotsa-ba as a prisoner of conscience, the EU advocated his imme-diate release. As a result, the journalist was acquitted.

• Personal pages in social networks, vid-eo channels are not media and nobody can be held liable for the content on these pages.

Ruslan Kotsaba (51 years old) Ukrainian opposition journalist and blogger

Interesting facts:

• In June 2014 there was free access to Donetsk or Luhansk regions, trains were running, there were no border points.

• Publication of materials in the media is a direct responsibility of a journalist or editor-in-chief.

GRAVAMEN:

He was detained on charge of violation of territorial integrity of Ukraine in March 2015 for his professional activities – republishing of Pavlo Hubariev’s interview in June 2014.

In December 2015, after 9 months of spending in the confinement cell, the measure of restraint – detention in custody – was discontinued, but the case is not closed. Judicial proceedings have been under way for already three years.

Oleksandr BondarchukPolitician, journalist, chiefeditor of the newspape “The Working Class”

5



On November 29, 2017 Oleksandr Medynskyi was tracked down and caught at the filling station, he was pushed into some-one else’s car and drove into the woods, where he was beaten with two-liter bottles, half filled with water (to avoid appearance of bruises), tortured: people who stole the blogger forced him to dig his own grave, staging the scene of death, crushed ciga-rettes on his face and hands. Thus they forced him to give false testimony against another journalist Ruslan Kotsaba, who is a political undesirable.

Due to these events, Oleksandr Medynskyi was diagnosed with concussion, damage to internal organs.

Artur Senko filmed video blogs and investigations for the You-Tube channel UAinside. He is known for investigations into the murders in Maidan, living conditions in the Crimea, coverage of the activities of radicals, monitoring of trials of political prisoners and many others.

In November 2016, the Security Service of Ukraine held an infor-mal meeting with the blogger and forced him to remove several videos, which showed the investigation of the murders in Maidan from the YouTube channel. Then unknown people beat the blog-ger. He left for the United States, where he learned about the criminal case against him on suspicion of aiding terrorism.

He has to apply for political asylum for himself and his family in the United States, where he is living at the present time.

Interesting facts:

• Radical groupings “Right Sec-tor” (“Pravyi Sector”), “Azov”, “C14” act with approval of the Security Service of Ukraine and are interconnected with it, to which the head of “C14” him-self confessed in an interview.

• Ukrainian nationalist far-right organization “C14” was includ-ed into the list of international terrorist organizations in No-vember 2017.

Artur SenkoBlogger

Oleksandr MedynskyiUkrainian blogger

6


DETENTION OF PEOPLE FOR CRITICISM IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

During the year the Security Service of Ukraine detains people on a systematic basis for criticizing in social networks and administering opposition groups.

IMPORTANT: the official information of the Security Service of Ukraine is used in the infographic. The actual number of repressed may significantly exceed the data of the Ukrainian authorities.

40109

and

11037 From 8

to 15

criminal proceedings over the criticism in social networks are

included in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial

Investigations

the articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine are imputed

to the accused (“actions aimed at overthrow

of power” and “violation of territorial integrity of Ukraine”)

verdicts of guilty were brought in by Ukrainian

courts on the fact of criticism of authorities

in social networks

years can be got by people who allow

critical posts about authorities

7


PUTTING PRESSURE ON MASS MEDIA

An example of pressure on the opposition newspaper “Vesti” demonstrates the use of all repressive measures: from general searches in the offices to threats of physi-cal violence and physical attack against staff members of this media by radical nationalists.

On February 23, 2017, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council denied license renewal for broadcasting in Kharkiv to “Radio Vesti”. The decision was made, despite the act of the Kharkiv District Ad-ministrative Court, which banned consideration of the issue of license renewal, since it has not yet lost its va-lidity. On March 1, the Media Holding submitted ap-

plications to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the na-tional police, accusing the National Council according to Art. 382 (“Failure to comply with a judicial decision”) and Art. 364 (“Abuse of authority or official position”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Nevertheless, the broad-cast of Vesti in Kharkiv was discontinued in the after-noon on February 24.

On March 3, at a meeting of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine, it was decided not to renew the Kyiv license of “Radio Vesti”.

In July 2017 representatives of the national police and the Military Prosecutor’s Office came to the editorial of-fice of the newspaper Vesti, web site and the radio. For several hours, the editorial office was blocked by dozens of armed people, searching employees and offices for unknown proof of an unknown crime, taking out office automation and editorial equipment.

On November 16, employees of the Military Prose-cutor’s Office and the National Agency for Identifying, Investigating and Managing Assets Obtained from Cor-ruption and Other Crimes came to the editorial office

of Media Holding Vesti Ukraine. As they reported, the purpose of their visit was inventory of property, but they did not provide documents and summoned law enforce-ment officials.

The incident with the holding immediately drew an an-gry rebuke from the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, the European Federation of Journalists, Na-tional Union of 9 journalists of Ukraine. The Council of Europe regarded the searches in editorial offices as the second level of threat and classified these events as “Per-secution and intimidation of journalists”.

The situation was of interest to the European Parliament, the International Federation of Journalists, the parlia-mentary group of the Bundestag, the embassies of the USA and the EU countries in Ukraine, human rights ac-tivists and the world media. On August 3, Oksana Om-elchenko, the chief editor of the Vesti newspaper and the website vesti-ukr.com, met with representatives of the ombudsman in the office of the Ukrainian Parlia-ment Commissioner for Human Rights. The reason was undertaking legal proceedings over violation of rights and freedoms of citizens during a search in the editorial office of Media Holding Vesti Ukraine.

8



The information site Strana.ua, whose editor Ihor Huzhva in June 2017 was detained on far-fetched charges and provocation, is exposed to constant repression.

According to the Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko, for not posting a compromising evidence on the deputy of the Radical Party Dmytro Linko, who reported blackmail to the police on March 31, Huzhva received $ 10,000 (marked money along with a bag equipped with a radio beacon were found during the search of the premises). According to Huzhva, he was unsuccessfully offered money for the removal of materials about the fabrication of the charges because of the authorities’ dissatisfaction with the editorial policy of the site, said the deputy of Huzhva Svitlana Kriukova.

On June 27, 2017 it became known of the facts of threats, addressed to journalists of Strana.ua. This was reported by Deputy Editor-in-Chief Svitlana Kriukova on her Facebook page. She attached a screenshot of one of the threats that she received on her mobile phone from an anonymous person. Kriukova noted that this was the fifth message in a day.

On August 9 the office of “Strana” was searched. In addition, the Security Service officers broke into the apartments of two journalists working for “Strana”.

The scandal with searches in the editorial office of “Strana” did not go unnoticed in international organizations.

On August 14, the International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement condemning the persecution of journalists in Ukraine and urged the authorities to ensure conditions for free and independent professional activity of journalists.

9



Peak pressure on the TV channels Inter, 112 and NewsOne happened in 2016. Meanwhile, in 2017, authorities with the help of individual nationalist groups, as well as decisions of state bodies, continued to interfere with the work of the television channels:

• In August, the Main Investigation Department of the National Police conducts pre-trial investigations into the case of the Inter TV channel, connected with the financing of terrorism. The proceedings were re-corded in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations on the basis of violation of articles of the Criminal Code on forgery of documents (Article 358, part 1) and the financing of terrorism (Article 258-5, part 3).

• In September, the National Council for Television and Radio Broad-casting of Ukraine denied reissuing the broadcasting license to the TV channel “112 Ukraine”. In addition, the National Council decided to ap-ply to the court with a request to annul the digital licenses of five legal entities broadcasting under the logo of the TV channel “112 Ukraine”.

• In June, the staff of the Ukrainian news channel NewsOne began to receive numerous threats in connection with the appearance of a footage about the language quotas on Ukrainian television on the channel “Russia 1”, where fragments of the NewsOne broadcast were used. As examples, the television channel quotes the statement of the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Illia Kyva on Facebook, about the need to “plug the Kremlin propaganda broadcasting through the pro-Kremlin NewsOne”, as well as the statement of the blogger Semen Kabakaiev that “the TV channel of Muraiev’s Deputy NewsOne should be closed, as well as “Inter”.

10



On December 3, 2017 to the territory of the TV chan-nel a truck with bags drove up, with the help of which the unknown, most of whom closed their faces with balaclavas, blocked the entrance and exit from the TV channel. The entrance to the TV channel was also blocked by the barbed wire.

Thus, open pressure is being exercised and physical obstacles to the implementation of legitimate jour-nalistic activities are created.

The lawbreakers explained that their goal is to force the channel to change its editorial policy and force the owner of the TV channel, people’s deputy, Muraiev Ye.V. to apologize for the opinion expressed by him on the air of the channel regarding events in Kiev at the end of 2013 – at the beginning of 2014, which obvi-ously does not coincide with the opinion of those who block the channel. Probably another reason for block-ing, which is not voiced by “activists”, may be that the NEWSONE TV channel was the only Ukrainian channel that broadcast the march against the incumbent Pres-ident of Ukraine, which took place on December 3, 2017 in Kiev.

Normal work as a result of such actions is broken, all interviews are canceled, guests cannot get into the TV channel’s studio, and journalists cannot perform their tasks. Dozens of journalists and other employees of the TV channel are actually hostages of the unknown,

who openly declare that their goal is to put pressure on the channel, censorship and the cessation of free-dom of speech.

Obviously, the actions of people who block the TV channel are illegal, they interfere with journalistic activity and encroach on freedom of speech. The Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for liability for ob-structing the lawful professional activity of journalists (Article 171), but law enforcement officers who are present at the channel and in front of which the so-called activists carry out their unlawful actions do not take any measures to protect journalists and suppress illegal actions.

11


In April 2017, the human rights group “Uspishna Varta” was formed, which included attorneys and lawyers of the political party Uspishna Krayina, as well as volunteers and active members of the polit-ical force.

The key goal of “Uspishna Varta” is to protect the rights of Ukrainians in the current regime in Ukraine. Priority tasks of the project are:

• Monitoring of situations related to the viola-tion of human rights in Ukraine;

• Assistance to citizens subject to political per-secution;

• Information and legal support for people who have suffered for their beliefs;

• Volunteer assistance to families of political prisoners;

• Free legal advice for the general public;

In addition, the volunteers of “Uspishna Varta” are present at the most resonant court hearings related to the violation of human rights, help to bring to the public the problems of political prisoners, their posi-tion and opinion. Also the team of “Uspishna Varta” is engaged in active explanatory work in the regions of Ukraine.

Since September the human rights group “Uspishna Varta” has published a quarterly monitoring of hu-man rights violations in Ukraine. The first document was presented on September 27 in the European Parliament (Brussels) at the roundtable “Violation of human rights, restriction of press freedom and po-litical repressions in Ukraine.” In the preparation of this monitoring, except “Uspishna Varta”, the Center for Freedom of Speech, the Institute for Legal Policy and Social Protection and other human rights orga-nizations took part.

Particular emphasis in the study is made on the facts of persecution of citizens for political reasons, im-peding the activities of political parties, restricting the rights to peaceful assemblies. There are political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Ukraine.

USPISHNA VARTA – WHO ARE WE?

12


FOR NOTES

13

monitoring "what is happening to freedom of speech in ukraine. state censorship and crackdown...

Law