‘Stop Censorship!’ statement on resolution of Kyiv Administrative Appeal Court (TVi/5 Channel case)
‘Stop Censorship!’ statement on resolution of Kyiv Administrative Appeal Court (TVi/5 Channel case)
‘Stop Censorship!' movement considers the resolution of Kyiv Administrative Appeal Court on the cancellation of results of television frequency band contest to have possibly been made under pressure from outside. It is notorious that Head of Security Service of Ukraine, Mr Valery Khoroshkovsky, who also is a member of Supreme Juridical Council, was interested in that very court resolution and possesses an ability to influence judges. We also have the information that National Television and Radio Council, recently renewed with Mr Khoroshkovsky's active participation, was acting to his favor and did not make necessary effort to prove its case in the courts.
To our mind, a resolution made by court under such conditions is not in line with the principles of democratic and civilized settling of business disputes and it may become a precedent for authorities' intervention into the activities of independent mass media and constitutional regulatory bodies.
Without making an appraisal of the court resolution, ‘Stop Censorship!' movement calls for President of Ukraine to eliminate a possible factor of pressure on the court by dismissing Mr Khoroshkovsky from Supreme Juridical Council before the beginning of trial in the court of review and also to think twice about the reasonability of the Security Service of Ukraine being headed by a businessman with such apparent conflict of interests.
The movement also calls for the authorities, Inter group, and TV channels to hold negotiations and find compromise that would allow restoring the rights of January 27th contest and also correcting the mistakes probably made by National Television and Radio Council in drawing the contest results.
The absence of steps in the direction of solving these issues is seen by us as the initiation by President Yanukovich's team of a mechanism of control over objectionable media with the help of ‘tame' supervising bodies and biased court resolutions. We also believe that Administration of President of Ukraine mimics Russian pattern of building-up powerful President's ‘vertical' and creates controlled uniform informational space through elimination of alternative independent media.
Reference.
Stop Censorship! movement
Stop Censorship! movement was created on May 21, 2010. This is an informal group of journalists that appeared in answer to curbs on free speech in Ukraine.
This is the initiative of Ukrainian journalists and non-governmental media organizations aimed at assertion of the freedom of speech, prevention of censorship establishing in Ukraine, making impossible interference in journalist professional activity and professional standards violation in terms of presentation of socio-political matters.
Stop Censorship! movement does not support any political force and has no financial backing from any political party.
To get more information or to join Stop Censorship! movement visit http://www.detector.media//news/article/53128/2010-05-22-pripiniti-tisk-na-zhurnalistiv-ne-dopustiti-represii/
You may follow Stop Censorship! movement blog http://stopcensorship.wordpress.com/ and twitter http://twitter.com/Stopcensorship
Contact
Artem Sokolenko
Stop Censorship! movement press center coordinator
050 440 46 08
