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[Second Issue of the Day]
#8
Ukraine election casts spotlight on media battle
By Elizabeth Piper
KIEV, March 27 (Reuters) - Strange phone calls, regular visits from the tax police and a court battle with the communications ministry -- it's all in a day's work for radio broadcaster Sergei Sholokh at election time in Ukraine.
Sholokh, who heads one of Ukraine's few independent radio stations, says he is eager for Sunday's parliamentary poll to be over so that he can sort out his studio, all but bankrupt since the tax men took what he calls an overzealous interest.
"There's less than a week to go to the election, then hopefully it will cool down," Sholokh said in the small basement studio of Radio Continent.
He recalled with a laugh that his first visit from the tax police was in 1998 -- date of Ukraine's last parliamentary election.
"Why do they bother with all this pressure? It only causes more of a fuss. And it happens every time there's an election," he said, tapping his feet to jazz music broadcast by his station.
Complaints by journalists to Western groups ahead of the election have again cast the spotlight on media freedom in former Soviet Ukraine, already in doubt after the murder of Georgiy Gongadze, a reporter critical of the authorities.
His headless corpse was discovered almost two years ago, leading to Ukraine's biggest political scandal in a decade when tapes were published in which a voice alleged to be similar to President Leonid Kuchma's discusses Gongadze's kidnapping.
Kuchma has denied any involvement.
European rights watchdogs and U.S. officials have voiced concern, with some saying election campaigning has been marked by intimidation, harassment and coercion -- something which many Ukrainian journalists say they have got used to.
"Everybody is in somebody's pay, whether the powers-that-be or businessmen," said Sholokh, whose radio station carries programmes from Western networks and is in the middle of a lengthy court case over his frequency that was sold by Ukraine's broadcasting controller in mid-contract.
"I just want to work honestly in my country, and see my country develop," he says, vowing to weather the crank telephone calls and frequent visits by technicians assigned to "check the signal."
LITTLE CHANGED
Commentators say even after 10 years of independence, Ukraine is a long way from gaining freedom of speech.
"It is surprising how little has changed in 10 years of independence," said Volodymyr Skachko, a journalist who has worked in Ukraine for 13 years and now freelances only for the German and Russian press.
"The tragedy of Ukraine's media is that no one demands an objective, independent information provider. It is not needed, by the political elite, by the opposition or by the population."
He agreed with Western observers' comments that pro-Kuchma forces had too much influence over television coverage in the run up to the election. But he said every powerful businessman also had his interests voiced in newspapers as well.
"An oligarch (powerful businessman) is someone who has a gold chain, a red jacket, a crew cut and a newspaper. It's a joke, but there is a lot of truth in that joke," Skachko said, banging his fist on the table in his two room flat to underline his point.
"Everyone wants to have his voice heard, every businessman wants to have some influence."
Ukraine has a superficially pluralistic media ownership which masks the authorities' attempts to dampen dissent and owners' lack of interest in objective reporting, he said.
Even Kuchma, recently tagged as one of the world's biggest "enemies of the press" by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, has complained there is no free press in Ukraine.
"There is no independent press in Ukraine. They, the media, all belong to somebody. They, reporters, just implement the orders from their owners," he told a recent meeting of regional reporters.
Commentators say Kuchma's comment may be a prelude to his seeking even more control of the Ukraine media.
MEDIA PIE
Skachko said the authorities already had a slice of the media pie, but without supportive businessmen they would be left only with crumbs. And the waning support of pro-presidential parties in this election has scared the leadership.
"If there was a guaranteed freedom of speech, then the authorities would only have one television channel. They would lose the fight on the press sphere," Skachko said.
"The media in Ukraine strictly adheres to the old mentality, the old aims of our Uncle Lenin," he said, referring to the founder of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin
For those who will not adhere to the line, many say the penalties are high.
Olena Prytula, editor of the Web site Ukrainska Pravda, which was previously run by Gongadze, has campaigned vigorously to find out who killed the reporter.
She has campaigned for the West to support an investigation into his murder, but worries the case could soon be closed.
"I do not have any illusions that the case will be investigated. I do not believe there will be an objective and transparent investigation," she said, adding that Ukrainian reporters had stopped talking and reporting about it.
"Reporters gave up. Everyone is saving themselves, their own families and they are using excuses that he or she needs money to support family and survive."
Sholokh and Skachko agree that journalists are being bought in Ukraine to become mouthpieces for the new elite.
But both say there is hope.
"It is very easy to buy journalists and buy the press...but that does not mean that all Ukrainian journalists are for sale," Skachko said. "There are some who stick to objective reporting. They are like grass growing between pavement slabs. Hopefully everything will be green in years to come."
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