IMI monitoring warns of June having been the worst month for attacks on journalists since the Orange Revolution
As the monitoring carried out by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) shows, in June there were several very disturbing crimes committed against journalists. Grave concern was elicited by the attack on the journalist Serhiy Yanovsky in Kherson. The attack, apparently an attempted murder, demonstrates the level of vulnerability of Ukrainian journalists covering high-profile or controversial issues.
Law enforcement officers have not generally managed to immediately investigate such incidents and up till now the criminals have not been caught.
Similarly worrying was the attack on the a press photographer Andriy Avdoshin, in Kharkiv., effectively an attempt to prevent him from carrying out his professional duties. A State Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Dmytro Shentsev, who had been invited to the session of the Kharkiv Regional Council, assaulted and beat the journalists, a press photographers for the agencies “Assocіated Press", "ITAR-TASS" and "Photolenta" . The journalist made a complaint to the police*.
Overall in June 4 assaults on journalists were recorded in June, this being a high figure since the Orange Revolution.
Among the positive tendencies, we would mention the court ruling in favour of the journalist Yury Chumak (the journal “Prava Ludyny”). His suit was against the President of Ukraine for inaction by not responding to a journalists’ formal request for information, and was allowed by the court, which is a positive precedent for the Ukrainian justice system.
14 July 2006 Barometer
- more on this at: http://khpg.org/1152835539 and http://khpg.org/1152835334
- Information about Yury Chumak’s case can be found at: http://khpg.org/1149723493