Attempt on the life of the editor of the newspaper “Tikhiy zhakh” (The appeal of the Poltava media club)

Today, on 17 June 2003, at 2 a.m. the attempt on the life of the family of Vasyl Koriak, the editor of the newspaper “Tikhiy zhakh”, was committed. V. Koriak is the author of a series of critical articles about Poltava governor E. Tomin that were published in the newspaper “Informatsiyny bulleten”. Three gunshots were fired at his house in Lubny, two bottles with Molotov’s cocktail were thrown into the windows.

Koriak informed that several days before this incident, after the second article about E. Tomin titled “The face of horde” had been published in “Informatsiyny bulleten”, two men visited him. They told that they were the representatives of the Poltava oblast administration and asked him to stop the criticism of the governor. They proposed either a great sum of money or the post of the head of the oblast Pension fund. Koriak refused categorically. He said that he could not sell his consciousness, and that the local dwellers had the right to know about the worthlessness of the people, who governed them. Then these two men said that the journalist would regret.

Unfortunately, the threats were realized soon. Vasyl Koriak is sure that the attempt on his life and the life of his family was ordered by Evhen Tomin, the head of the Poltava oblast administration.

We turn to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who is the guarantor of the constitutional rights of citizens, and to General Prosecutor of Ukraine S. Piskun with the demand to guarantee the safety of Poltava journalists, to stop the political censorship in its more dangerous form – physical destruction of those, who write the truth unpleasant for state officials, to find and punish the executors of this terrible crime and those, who ordered it.

17 June 2003
Per procurationem – President of the Poltava media club Ludmila Kucherenko,
 [email protected]