On the dismissal of Georgiy Teron, the general manager of the Chernivtsy oblast state TV and radio company
From the open letter of I. Lubchenko, the head of the TV company, to Ivan Chizh, the head of the State committee in charge of TV and radio broadcasting
According to the order issued by the committee headed by you, Georgiy Teron, the general manager of the Chernivtsy oblast state TV and radio company, was dismissed from his post.
The formal cause for the dismissal was the end of the term of the contract with G. Teron. I am saying “formal”, since both the administration of the Union of independent journalists of Ukraine and the workers of Bukovina mass media, as well as our colleagues throughout the country, know about the long-lasting conflict between Teofil Bauer, the head of the Chernivtsy oblast administration, and journalists.
The conflict between the Chernivtsy governor and journalists, who are persistently fighting for their right to write and tell truth, reached its apogee when the journalists and members of their families organized the picket of the building of the oblast administration. G. Teron also took part in the picket. This fact aroused the ire of Mr. Bauer, who declared that the TV and radio company might not be headed by such radical journalists collective. And, as we see, he realized the idea. The order on the dismissal of G. Teron was issued even without the agreement of the council of general managers of TV and radio companies, although this had to be done according to the provisions on the council approved by the collegium of the committee headed by you.
It is a pity, but the State committee in charge of TV and radio broadcasting took the side of the state official in his conflict with the journalist.
On the same days, when the order on the dismissal of G. Teron was signed in Kyiv, Simferopol authorities fired Valeriy Nizovoy, the general manager of the TRC “Krym”. The cancellation of contracts also threatens the general managers of Dnepropetrovsk, Volyn and some other state TV and radio companies.
Unfortunately, your Committee is ruining the values that you have been declaring all the time.
(«Svoboda», No. 25, 24-30 June 2003)