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Alert

RSF urges new interior minister to put a stop to the violence against journalists

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is an RSF press release:

RSF urges new interior minister to put a stop to the violence against journalists and order an investigation of his ministry

In a letter to the new minister of the interior, Yuri Smirnov, appointed to his post by President Kuchma on 26 March 2001, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) urged him to put a stop to the violence against journalists in Ukraine, just as several journalists in the city of Lugansk (eastern Ukraine) have denounced the death threats they have received in recent days.




"Nine murders of journalists committed in the last five years have yet to be cleared up. There have been dozens of cases of attacks and threats against journalists and intimidation of the press in recent months. This extremely serious situation requires that you take immediate decisions. This includes the possibility of having to acknowledge that it stems from a direct governmental policy," stated Robert Ménard, the organisation's secretary-general. Moreover, RSF asked the new minister to order a thorough investigation of the Ministry of the Interior, in order to determine who was ultimately responsible for the surveillance, disappearance and assassination of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

According to information collected by RSF, on Monday 26 March 2001, Yuri Smirnov, the city of Kiev's chief of police and also until now vice-minister of the Interior, was appointed minister of the Interior, replacing Yuri Kravchenko, who has been directly implicated in the case of the disappearance of journalist Georgiy Gongadze. RSF drew the new minister's attention to the cases of several journalists who were threatened in recent weeks, particularly the case of Ivan Bezsmertnyi, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Tretkyi Sektor, who was threatened several times after the publication of his articles about possible embezzlement by member of parliament Ivan Adruchenko, as well as the cases of Yuriy Yurov, editor-in-chief of the daily 21 Vek in Lugansk, and M. Landyk, Lugansk correspondent for the 1+1 television station. The two journalists have respectively been beaten and been the target of death threats by local officials. On Monday 26 March 2001, thirty-five journalists from the Lugansk region were to make public an appeal to President Kuchma and Ukraine's public prosecutor urging an end to the threats and intimidation which they have been subjected to by local administration officials, state police and certain members of parliament. RSF urged the new minister of the interior to end the practice of control and repression of the independent press, and to take all the necessary measures to discourage and curb attacks and threats against journalists.

Furthermore, RSF reminded the new minister that there has been no serious investigation to date of official services' shadowing and intimidation of assassinated journalist Georgiy Gongadze in the weeks prior to his disappearance. In a letter to Ukraine's public prosecutor, the journalist personally denounced his surveillance by Ministry of the Interior officials, who followed him and interrogated his close relations. In the provisional conclusions of the investigation which he presented to parliament on 11 January 2001, Ukraine's public prosecutor, Mihailo Potebenko, stated that since the minister of the interior had denied any possible involvement of the services under his authority, any accusation was groundless. "Since a number of facts have already been established, this denial of the truth is incredulous. At this stage, the investigation cannot reasonably be led with a primary motive of protecting a number of officials of the executive. The responsibilities of those within the Ministry of the Interior must be established," determined RSF.