Pressure upon the Internet-edition “Obkom”

15 July 2003. The official appeal of Sergey Sukhobok, the head of the social-analytical movement “Grupa gromadian” (“Group of citizens”), and Aleksey Mironov, the editor-in-chief of the Internet-edition “Obkom”, communicate that during the last week the officers of the Directorate for fighting the economic crimes (DFEC) demanded from counteragents and partners of “Grupa gromadian” the information, which represented the confidential part of contractual relationship. “At that the officers groundlessly referred to item 24 Article 11 of the Law of Ukraine “On militia”… These actions are illegal, since no criminal case was instituted either against “Grupa gromadian”, or members and workers of the edition “Obkom”, on the basis of which case the militia would have the right to collect this information”, the appeal states. The authors of the document regard the actions of the DFEC and of “the authorities, who approved these actions” as “moral, psychological and, maybe, physical pressure on the publishers of the Internet-newspaper “Obkom” and their partners”.

Institute of mass information, «Barometr svobody slova», July 2003

Aleksey Mironov, the editor-in-chief of the Internet-newspaper “Obkom”, asserts that he has the information that the illegal actions of the DFEC were caused by the publications in “Obkom” and were approved by the General Prosecutor’s office. “That is why we regard the current situation as the continuation of the criminal activities of Sviatoslav Piskun directed towards the destruction of “Obkom””, writes A. Mironov in his appeal.

(«Svoboda», No. 30, 29 July-4 August 2003)