The appeal of Kharkov Group for human rights protection to TV canal ‘1+1’
09.12.2000
Dear Sirs!
We were unpleasantly amazed with your transmission ‘The times of war’ by Anatoliy Borsiuk. The level of morals and culture of the author of this transmission and his level of journalism is primitive and helpless, which does not suit to our favorite TV-company. In comparison with the journalist, the investigating officer looked much better and showed more humanity. The investigating officer said that the murders could not stop because not only disintegration of psyche exists, but the disintegration of personality which medical experts do not take into account.
It means that the investigating officer saw more facets of the problem. And that makes the case even more horrible, because one understands that these unbelievable crimes were committed not by some beasts, not by usual people, but by people, who gave themselves to evil – partly by their own will and partly under the influence of common informational level of moral. Thanks God that we have such investigating officers. And it is shame that we have such journalists, since this is not only primitive level of the assessment of the situation, but also the instigation of the most brutal and cruel instincts of the public. And our public already suffocates from cruelty and absence of moral.
PL commentary. We remind our reader that in No. 4 for 1999 ‘Prava ludyny’ published the interview of our editor I. Sukhorukova with the priest of the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox church Viktor Marynchak, who answered many questions touched upon in the transmission of journalist Borsiuk.
In a short introduction we certainly could not cover everything that we can say about the role that is played by our press in shaping the civilian consciousness. But this is a very important question. We do not encounter for the first time with the negative reaction of our national elite to the abolishment of the death penalty.
But in such a case the campaign had to be carried out before the decision of the Parliament and at that time the protest of the majority of politicians and journalists was rather lax. And it is not surprising. Only left parties demonstrated their indifference to the threat to exclude Ukraine from the Council of Europe (although it does not mean that they did not dream about it). The Parliament confirming the decision to abolish the death penalty did what had to be done. As is known, the adoption of the decision by the Parliament happened after the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine that considered the death penalty as non-constitutional. And all this happened almost without protest from politicians and mass media. Then why now we come across with such surprising phenomena as the collection of signatures in Zhytomir (initiated by journalists) under the letter to the President. In this letter the execution of Onoprienko is demanded. This shows little respect tot he operating laws and it is done not by men in the street, but by specialists.
I should call a campaign the position of mass media after the abolishment of the death penalty, but, to my pity, the number of publications and TV transmissions against the abolishment is growing lately, and such materials become more insisting. We have already fulfilled the wish of the Council of Europe.
In my opinion, even now such publications is a public poison, because we demonstrate not only cruelty, which blossoms even among national intelligentsia, but also unsteadiness and the wish to adapt. When people, who are influential, demonstrate such views as Mr. Borsiuk, one wishes to ask: why, my dearest, you were silent before? Where were your publications and transmissions? Maybe you were afraid that Ukraine would be driven from the Council of Europe?
That is a pity, but we really did something useful and humane because we were scared by a stern supervisor from the Council of Europe. Oh, God, we are afraid of everybody! Russia, because we a dependent on her energy resources. The Council of Europe, since we are dependent on investments from the European countries. We are afraid of the USA by the same reasons. Thank God, we are not afraid of African countries.
Meanwhile, our society is nearly in a collapse due to our cruelty. I wonder, if a journalists, who casts words: ‘I think that such people must be killed’, does not understand that he throws a match on the field polluted with the fuel. In our group there are no people who love robbers and killers. But every one of us cannot help feeling anger, when coming across such articles and transmissions. In such cases we defend not murderers, but ourselves, our morals and consciousness. That we are right is proved by the statistics quoted in this issue: it is seen that for two years when the death penalties were not executed in Ukraine, the number of grave crimes decreased.
And this is surprising in such a cruel society as ours. But this is concordant with the world statistics that says that the number of grave crimes does not depend on the presence or absence of the death penalty. So, misters journalists and politicians, maybe, before agitating to kill people, we shall stop and think that our society is such that there will be enough people to realize the ideas in practice. And who will be responsible?
Inna Sukhorukova
We were unpleasantly amazed with your transmission ‘The times of war’ by Anatoliy Borsiuk. The level of morals and culture of the author of this transmission and his level of journalism is primitive and helpless, which does not suit to our favorite TV-company. In comparison with the journalist, the investigating officer looked much better and showed more humanity. The investigating officer said that the murders could not stop because not only disintegration of psyche exists, but the disintegration of personality which medical experts do not take into account.
It means that the investigating officer saw more facets of the problem. And that makes the case even more horrible, because one understands that these unbelievable crimes were committed not by some beasts, not by usual people, but by people, who gave themselves to evil – partly by their own will and partly under the influence of common informational level of moral. Thanks God that we have such investigating officers. And it is shame that we have such journalists, since this is not only primitive level of the assessment of the situation, but also the instigation of the most brutal and cruel instincts of the public. And our public already suffocates from cruelty and absence of moral.
PL commentary. We remind our reader that in No. 4 for 1999 ‘Prava ludyny’ published the interview of our editor I. Sukhorukova with the priest of the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox church Viktor Marynchak, who answered many questions touched upon in the transmission of journalist Borsiuk.
In a short introduction we certainly could not cover everything that we can say about the role that is played by our press in shaping the civilian consciousness. But this is a very important question. We do not encounter for the first time with the negative reaction of our national elite to the abolishment of the death penalty.
But in such a case the campaign had to be carried out before the decision of the Parliament and at that time the protest of the majority of politicians and journalists was rather lax. And it is not surprising. Only left parties demonstrated their indifference to the threat to exclude Ukraine from the Council of Europe (although it does not mean that they did not dream about it). The Parliament confirming the decision to abolish the death penalty did what had to be done. As is known, the adoption of the decision by the Parliament happened after the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine that considered the death penalty as non-constitutional. And all this happened almost without protest from politicians and mass media. Then why now we come across with such surprising phenomena as the collection of signatures in Zhytomir (initiated by journalists) under the letter to the President. In this letter the execution of Onoprienko is demanded. This shows little respect tot he operating laws and it is done not by men in the street, but by specialists.
I should call a campaign the position of mass media after the abolishment of the death penalty, but, to my pity, the number of publications and TV transmissions against the abolishment is growing lately, and such materials become more insisting. We have already fulfilled the wish of the Council of Europe.
In my opinion, even now such publications is a public poison, because we demonstrate not only cruelty, which blossoms even among national intelligentsia, but also unsteadiness and the wish to adapt. When people, who are influential, demonstrate such views as Mr. Borsiuk, one wishes to ask: why, my dearest, you were silent before? Where were your publications and transmissions? Maybe you were afraid that Ukraine would be driven from the Council of Europe?
That is a pity, but we really did something useful and humane because we were scared by a stern supervisor from the Council of Europe. Oh, God, we are afraid of everybody! Russia, because we a dependent on her energy resources. The Council of Europe, since we are dependent on investments from the European countries. We are afraid of the USA by the same reasons. Thank God, we are not afraid of African countries.
Meanwhile, our society is nearly in a collapse due to our cruelty. I wonder, if a journalists, who casts words: ‘I think that such people must be killed’, does not understand that he throws a match on the field polluted with the fuel. In our group there are no people who love robbers and killers. But every one of us cannot help feeling anger, when coming across such articles and transmissions. In such cases we defend not murderers, but ourselves, our morals and consciousness. That we are right is proved by the statistics quoted in this issue: it is seen that for two years when the death penalties were not executed in Ukraine, the number of grave crimes decreased.
And this is surprising in such a cruel society as ours. But this is concordant with the world statistics that says that the number of grave crimes does not depend on the presence or absence of the death penalty. So, misters journalists and politicians, maybe, before agitating to kill people, we shall stop and think that our society is such that there will be enough people to realize the ideas in practice. And who will be responsible?
Inna Sukhorukova