26.10.2009

It is the State’s duty to protect the media from censorship

The procedure for appointing the management of the National Television Channel (Channel One) constitutes direct political control by the State of television and runs counter to a seminal judgment from the European Court of Human Rights.

07.10.2009

Letter to Council of Europe

Dear Mr Jagland, In the first place, we welcome your appointment as the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe and wish you every success in promoting human rights and democracy across Europe in the coming five years of your tenure in the position.

22.06.2009

Human rights defenders, journalists, writers, artists and many others are calling on the President to veto the recently passed Law (No. 3221, adopted on 11 June 2009

The appeal, which is open for signatures at: http://www.helsinki.org.ua/index.php?id=1245492991 states: The new Law imposes criminal liability for possession of works, images or other items of a pornographic nature for the purpose of sale or circulation.

04.05.2009

Journalists win law suit against Verkhovna Rada over information

The newspaper “Delo” has won court confirmation of its right to receive information which the Verkhovna Rada keeps from the public.

22.04.2009

Without positive content

In Soviet times the logic was eminently simple. If the Party is always right, then those who oppose it are either criminals or madmen. Those unable or unwilling to acknowledge exclusive rights to the one and only truth are no longer executed, sent to labour camps or “treated” in psychiatric hospitals. However the present authorities also appear to experience some difficulty in understanding pluralism. Maybe that’s why it’s hard of late to not feel a sense of déjà vu, which may not be surprising, of course, given the stream of remakes.

23.03.2009

Internet Association of Ukraine signs Memorandum of Cooperation with Morality Commission

The signing took place on 20 March of a Memorandum of Cooperation on Issues of Safety in the Ukrainian Segment of the Internet between the National Expert Commission on the Protection of Public Morality [the Commission] and the Internet Association of Ukraine [IAU]. The signing was preceded by a press conference whose participants explained what they were signing and why.

20.03.2009

The Limited Force of Fine Words

Two men are running along the street: the one in front is black and wearing jeans, behind him your typical English Bobbie, police helmet and all. That was the photograph on a big poster in the London Underground. I wouldn’t have paid any attention except for the sign: “Another example of police prejudice or of yours?” Well, now that made me stop and read the explanation. It turned out that the guy in front was the head of the local Criminal Investigation Department, and the uniformed man a rank and file police officer taken on to help. And what did you think? So did I.

04.12.2008

Call for judge to be dismissed over the case against “CAT plus”

The National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters (NAM) have called on the High Council of Justice, the High Qualifying Commission of the Council of Judges, the Ministry of Justice and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Justice Issues to dismiss Judge of the Slovyansk City-District Court of the Donetsk Region, Tetyana Khaustova. NAM cite infringement of her oath as grounds for dismissal. On 26 December 2007 Judge Tetyana Khaustova passed a ruling ordering the TV and radio company “CAT plus” and the journalist Nataliya Popova to pay 80 thousand UAH in damages to the Mayor of Slovyansk Valentin Rybachuk.

25.11.2008

How to lose the information war (part 1)

No one would deny the considerable attention paid to Ukraine by both Russian and the world media since the beginning of the military conflict over South Ossetia. What is in dispute is the reason for so much attention. Implications arising from Russia’s assertion of its right to “protect its nationals” anywhere in the world, its lavishness in issuing passports to South Ossetians, and apparent parallels with the situation in the Crimea do not need to be spelled out. Ukraine has, however, also been repeatedly accused by the Kremlin and in the Russian media of providing weapons to Georgia and there have been allegations that members of a Ukrainian nationalist organization took part in the conflict.

04.11.2008

Injecting political will

My surge of interest in one of the debates between presidential hopefuls Obama and McCain, that is, McCain and Obama, waned swiftly. I did have time to note, however, that the presenter even alternated the order in which the two men were mentioned.

28.10.2008

UHHRU taken to court by Ukrainian Federation of Trade Unions

On 28 November 2007 the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union posted on its website an appeal from the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Ukraine [NCTU] under the title: “National Confederation of Trade Unions accuses the Federation of Trade Unions of corruption”.

23.10.2008

Uncensored justice

The value of all fine words about reform is assessed in their application – or lack of action. In Ukraine any reform must involve serious changes to the judicial system. There was a great deal of optimism in 2005-2006 that real progress was being made. In 2008 it is difficult to feel positive at all, or even entirely confident that when we use certain apparently clear terms – like “reform”, “freedom of speech” and “democracy” that we all mean the same thing. Not only are we seeing politicians riding roughshod over the rule of law dragging the courts into their political struggle, but an attempt in an apparently reputable newspaper to analyze the progress with judicial reform has ended in allegations from the authors of censorship and counter accusations, or more accurately insinuations, from the newspaper about some supposedly questionable motives.

14.10.2008

Ministry of Positive Content

Try to imagine it: in response to the world financial crisis, the UK’s Deputy Speaker in Parliament invites all journalists to a special meeting, called to discuss the disturbing lack of positive news in their broadcasts. Various solutions get put forward, including an interview with the Chancellor in a relaxed setting about his love of dogs.

18.08.2008

Second-hand News

The conflict between Georgia and Russia showed the world that the worryingly militant rhetoric from Russia was much more than mere rhetoric. Suggestions are increasingly being voiced that none of it was unexpected; that Russia had planned it beforehand and cleverly provoked Georgia. Be that as it may, and regardless of our assessment of Georgia’s actions, the undisguised dismay and sense of desperate powerlessness as Russian forces invaded another country’s territory will stay with many of us for a very long time.

29.01.2008

Putrid lies and other unpleasant odours

If the food item you bought in a supermarket proves rotten and smelly, you don’t just, so to speak, swallow it. Why accept information which is no less toxic and of dubious quality especially when it makes serious allegations about anti-Semitism in Ukraine?

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