Journalists come out in force in support of TVi and LB.ua

A large number of journalists gathered in protest and solidarity with beleaguered colleagues from the independent TV channel TVi and the Internet Internet publication Levy Bereg [LB.ua] .

As reported, on Wednesday a Kyiv Prosecutor announced that criminal proceedings had been initiated against the Levy Bereg Chief Editor over alleged infringement of Party of the Regions MP’s privacy of correspondence  The charges relate to photographs taken of Landik communicating by mobile sms messages with his son, Roman Landik, who was then in remand prison after assaulting a young woman in a restaurant in July and being extradited from Russia after the degree of anger among the Ukrainian public led the authorities to promise that measures would be taken.  Landik Junior received a suspended sentence, and some 6 months after the sms incident and four months before the parliamentary elections, Landik Senior decided to make a formal complaint.

News that a criminal investigation had been initiated (after a couple of weeks of denials and uncertainty) came a few days after the tax police initiated a criminal investigation against Mykola Knyzhytsky, Director General of the independent TVi channel. 

Both media sources are known for hard-hitting investigations of the government, including over corruption.

Concern is understandably intense among journalists and many others.

The attempts on Thursday to prevent the demonstration were typical.  Ten minutes before it was to begin, the Deputy Head of the Pechersky Police Station came up to the demonstrators and claimed that a bomb had been planted and that the protest could not take place. Police asked them to move away 100 metres.

The journalists were not deterred - or convinced since none of the Prosecutor General’s Office staff was evacuated.

The journalists were joined by civic activists defending the rights of small and medium size business owners and some MPs.

Then they brought out a person from the Court Bailiffs Office to read out a court ruling from the Kyiv Administrative Court.  The journalists couldn’t understand how the authorities had had time since notification of the protest was only given on Thursday morning. It transpired that the court order had been signed on 3 July 2012, with the court having restricted demonstrations, and a lot more, including by the above-meaning small business owners, from 5 July to 31 August.

The journalists refused to budge and in fact were not obstructed any further..

From the report at Telekritika