U-Media Weekly Briefer: HOT MEDIA SECTOR NEWS

U-Media Weekly Briefer

October 18 - 24, 2012

HOT MEDIA SECTOR NEWS

Freedom of Speech

• October 23 – Journalists-members of the Inter-Agency Working Group on Freedom of Speech at the Presidential Administration announced about the launch of their own monitoring of the Group’s work effectiveness. Ms. Oksana Romanyuk, representative of the Reporters without Borders reported that journalists were not satisfied with the Work Group’s effectiveness: the police and the prosecutors did not respond on the cases of beating journalists and prevention from the professional work. Thus, journalists do not see any real dialogue between media and governors which had to cause adherence to journalists’ rights. Monitoring results will be regularly published and sent to international organizations, http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-23/76125.
• October 23 – Members of the Inter-Agency Working Group on Freedom of Speech at the Presidential Administration requested the Central Election Commission (CEC) to appoint a coordinator to facilitate media work during the elections. This coordinator should ensure prompt reactions on possible incidents with journalists reporting on the voting process. The coordinator should also instruct members of the local elections commissions on defense of journalists’ rights and assist journalists in their work on the voting day, http://bit.ly/Voeip9. 

Earlier, on October 18, the Head of the State Committee on TV and Radio Mr. Oleksandr Kurdinovych promised to support journalists, official international observers during the elections period and on the voting day. The Committee created the monitoring center “Media and Elections 2012” to verify the legitimacy of political advertisement and agitation in state and private media within the elections period and provide legal assistance to journalists,http://vybory.mediasapiens.ua/2012/10/18/derzhkomteleradio-stvoryv-orhanizatsijno-monitorynhovyj-tsentr-zmi-na-vyborah-2012.

• October 22 – Deputy Head of Brovary District State Administration Mr. Mykola Myronets pushed off a journalist of “Inter” TV channel Mr. Roman Bochkala from the stairs when the journalist asked the public official about prevention of two journalists from being present at the meeting of the Prime-Minister Mykola Azarov with the local office of the Party of Regions in Brovary town on October 20. The journalist filed a request to the local prosecutor’s office for the investigation of the case of prevention of him from the professional work.  Mr. Myronets refused availability of the incident despite of the video record. Later, the Head of Brovary State Administration Mr. Petro Ivanenko called the journalist’s mobile phone, apologized for the incident and promised punishing the guilty person, http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-23/76123. The Prosecutor’s Office in Brovary town launched the investigation case of the incident of breaking mobiles of the two journalists,http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-23/76132.
• October 22 – International Delegation of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) reported about non-implementation by the GOU of its recommendations on the elections process in Ukraine. на черговому засіданні Міжвідомчої робочої групи з аналізу стану додержання законодавства про свободу слова та захист прав журналістів, що відбулося 22 жовтня в Києві. NDI Director in Ukraine Ms. Kristina Wilfore, at the meeting of the Inter-agency Working Group on analysis of how the legislation of freedom of speech and protection of journalists’ rights are followed,  mentioned that voters have access to limited information only and independent experts’ opinions due to very concentrated media ownership of key national TV channels. Ms. Wilfore also expressed her concerns about the refusals of TVi journalists to be accredited for public events and absence of real investigation cases of pressure on journalists. That negatively impacts on Ukrainian media and undermines citizens’ trust in the help should their rights be violated,http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-23/76117.  
• October 22 – Unknown people distributed the anti-leaflets consisting black PR against the single-mandate candidates of “Batkivschyna” and “UDAR”. The leaflet told that the ex-chair of Kyiv police Mr. Vitaliy Yarema and ex-chair of Ukrainian Interpol department Mr. Kyrylo Kulikov were the members of the same business group and got their millions together.  There was a signature of “Ukrainska Pravda” on the leaflet. “Ukrainska Pravda” refused any relationship this information,http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-22/76112.
• October 22 – The journalists of the local state-owned TV channel in Kirovohrad made a video-record of the actions of the oppositional single-mandate candidate Mr. Oleksandr Tabalov and his headquarters bribing voters and illegally collecting voters’ personal data. After the headquarters representatives found out that the journalists made the video-record, they seized the journalists Mr. Kyrylo Yuschishyn and Mr. Ivan Fominchenko, kept them in the locked premises for over 1.5 hour and applied the physical actions to force the journalists to give them the records and the video camera. Mr. Tabalov explained that video-recording in the private premises of the United Opposition’s headquarters is illegal, http://vybory.mediasapiens.ua/2012/10/22/zhurnalistiv-kanalu-kirovohrad-pivtory-hodyny-sylomits-utrymuvaly-v-shtabi-opozytsijnoho-kandydata.
• October 22 – Police started an official investigation case of the incident with a journalist of Channel 5 Ms. Oksana Trokoz that happened at the public concert organized by a single-mandate candidate Mr. Vitaliy Zhuravskiy in Korostyshiv town, Zhytomyr region. After the journalists of Channel 5 arrived to the event and tried to interview Mr. Zhuravskiy, four guards and a director of a local Palace of Arts prevented them from coming in, closed their camera by the hands and pushed off the operator. The building administrator locked all doors to the concert hall and drove out journalists from the premises. Ms. Trokoz filed a complaint to the police stating that the journalists were prevented from their professional work, http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-22/76082, http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-20/76069.
• October 20 – A journalist of the internet outlet “You have the right to know” Ms. Alina Dyachenko was not allowed to enter the voting station at Brovary town (Kyiv region) palace of culture “Prometheus” before the visit of the Prime-Minister of Ukraine Mr. Mykola Azarov. Ms. Dyachenko and a group of journalists of other outlets (Mr. Andriy Kachor, Mr. Serhiy Illyukhin and Mr. Dmytro Karpiy, newspaper “Public advocacy in Kyiv region”) observed the process of preparations to the Prime-Minster’s visit at the lobby of “Prometheus” palace. Seven employees of the local authorities did not allow the group of journalists to go in. Then, upon seeing Mr. Kachor and Ms. Dyachenko filming the preparation process on the phone, a driver of the Head of Brovary District State Administration broke the phones of both journalists,   http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-20/76072
• October 19 – Zhytomyr police filed a lawsuit with a local journalist Mr. Victor Kostenko (website “Human rights advocacy center Liberty”) because of the article about the narcotics mafia. According to Mr. Kostenko, “Narcotics mafia” article was recognized as false by the police since the journalists used just regular police officers’ reports as a background for his article. The police requested the court to make a decision that the article was not true and damaged a professional reputation of Chernyakhivsky district (of Zhytomyr city) police department. At the same time, the police department requested from the court to disprove the article in Zhytomyr regional newspaper “Liberty”, however, according to the journalist, this article did not exist in the print outlet. In response to Telekritika’s request to the police department in Zhytomyr region, the police public relations department manager Ms. Alla Vashchenko mentioned that the police’s lawsuit was based on Ukrainian legislation guaranteeing defense at the court for suffering from defamation or false information distributed publicly, http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-19/76060

• ·         October 19 – A journalist Kost’ Kovalenko (information agency “Voice UA”) in its open letter to Stop Censorship! in Facebook reported that he was beaten in Berdychiv town (Zhytomyr region) because of his investigation of the violations of the election legislation in the 63^rd voting district of Berdychiv town. One of the single-mandate candidates – Mr. Mykola Petrenko, ex-advisor to the Prime-Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and the owner of “Petrus-Alco” company, - organized a scheme of bribing voters. The scheme was the following: a person who agitated voters to sell their votes took passport copies and ID #s of those who agreed to be bribed; then the voters signed the employment agreements with Mr. Petrenko; then the copies of voters’ documents were transferred to the higher level of Mr. Petrenko’s managers who called the voters to confirm that they agreed to sell their votes. Should information be confirmed, the voters got UAH200 and their agitators – UAH50 per person. The journalist Kovalenko informed about this scheme OPORA, commented the situation for “1+1” and TVi channels. Then the journalists was beaten and threatened several times (on October 15 and 18). According to the public relations department of the interiors in Zhytomyr region, the police is now checking the facts of beating the journalist,http://www.telekritika.ua/news_cenzura/2012-10-19/76043
  • October 19 – State Committee of TV and Radio analyzed 50 court cases on violations of the legislation on the pre-election agitation in media. 26 court decisions were made in favor of the participants of the elections process. Print media outlets participated in 41 court cases; TV channels – in 2 cases; internet media – in 2 cases, and official websites of the state authorities – in 5 cases. The following violations were found in the lawsuits: refusals in providing advertising space in newspapers, distribution of false information, and distribution of agitation materials without pre-payments from the headquarters of political parties or single-mandate candidates. Among those who filed lawsuits there were: 9 representatives of “Batkivshchyna”; 6 – “Udar”; 6 – Party of Regions; 2 – Radical party of Ukraine; 2 - Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists; 1 – political unity “Native Motherland”,http://vybory.mediasapiens.ua/2012/10/19/sudy-uhvalyly-26-rishen-pro-porushennya-provedennya-peredvybornoji-ahitatsiji-u-zmi/
  • ·         October 18 – State Committee on TV and Radio published a report on monitoring of the elections content at the national TV channels -  Inter, “1+1”, ICTV, New Channel, STB, Channel 5, “Ukraina” and First National.  The monitoring report analyzed the volume of direct political parties’ advertisements, quantity of the stories and their length in seconds, the representativeness of the political figures in talk-shows, as well as quantity and length of the reports about GOU. The report stated that the opposition was represented 2.4 times more than the Party of Regions in the national channels’ programs. However, the monitoring experts counted “UDAR”, “Ukraine Ahead”, “Svoboda” (Liberty), Our Ukraine and the Radical Party as a single oppositional force. It contradicts with their political programs and results of other monitoring done by independent media experts,http://vybory.mediasapiens.ua/2012/10/18/opozytsiya-predstavlena-na-telebachenni-v-2-4-bilshe-nizh-partiya-rehioniv-derzhkomteleradio.
  • ·         October 18 - Police in Trans-Carpathian region refused launching a criminal case requested by a journalist of a local newspaper “Black Mountain” Mr. Maksym Molnar because of the threats from a guard of the local supermarket “Grand” (Vynohradiv town). On August 30, the journalist made a picture of the wrong placement of Ukraine’s state flag. The guard who noticed the journalist making picture captured the journalist and threatened him with requirements to delete the picture. After preliminary examination of the guard, the police made a conclusion that the journalist erased all pictures from his camera. However, the police did not watch the video tapes of the incident and did not examine other witnesses,http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-18/76017.
  • October 18 – National Council on TV and Radio fixed about 150 cases with the features of violations of the elections legislation. Head of the National Council Mr. Volodymyr Manzhosov stated that the facts of violations should be proved by the court or through the  official inspection done by the National Council which is possible after the elections. According to Mr. Manzhosov, most of the violations were related to the exceeded advertisement quotas, non-distinguished political advertisement and agitation, and wrong sociological survey reports. The Council’s inspection may be assigned in November for several TV channels if the Council fixes the systematic breaches. The Council may issue a warning notice if the channels breach the Law. According to the legislation, several warning notices might cause the channel’s deprivation from the license (should a court make such a decision),http://vybory.mediasapiens.ua/2012/10/18/natsrada-zafiksuvala-blyzko-150-oznak-porushen-vyborchoho-zakonodavstva.
  • October 22 – Head of the National Union of Journalists Mr. Oleg Nalyvaiko reported that the newly elected MPs from the Party of Regions might initiate the second hearing of the Libeling Law (submitted by Mr. Vitaliy Zhuravskiy). According to Mr. Nalyvaiko, the Union will apply all possible advocacy efforts to prevent the further adoption of the Law that introduces criminal responsibility for journalists for deceitful reporting, http://www.telekritika.ua/news/2012-10-22/76083.
  • October 19 – A media lawyer Mr. Yuriy Krayniak accused the National Council on TV and Radio in forgery with publication of the draft decision on expansion of the Universe Program Service (one month later than it was proposed). According to Mr. Krayniak, the draft decision was not published on time. However, the trick with placement of the draft on the Council’s website was made for the purpose of the registration of the Universe Program Service with the Ministry of Justice, http://www.telekritika.ua/nacrada/2012-10-19/76059.
  • October 17 – Cabinet of Ministers adopted the draft Law on Public Broadcasting that was proposed by the State Committee on TV and Radio on September 7 and sent it to the Parliament. The draft Law defined the principles of public broadcasting and proposed the changes to acting Laws On Public Broadcasting, On National Council for TV and Radio, On TV and Radio, On Media Reporting about the Government and Self-Governance Bodies, On Elections of the President of Ukraine, and On Parliamentary Elections. The full-size document is available at Mediasapience web-site, http://stv.mediasapiens.ua/material/11346.  
  • October 18 – A 10-day period started when sociological survey about elections candidates’ rating cannot be published due to the Law On Parliamentary Elections. However, all sociological companies continued their surveys. Their results may be published on the voting day along with the exit poll results. General Director of Kyiv International Institute of Sociology Mr. Volodymyr Paniotto stated that the European legislation prescribes a 2-day period only when publications of voters’ preferences are prohibited,http://vybory.mediasapiens.ua/2012/10/18/sotsioloham-zaboroneno-publikuvaty-rezultaty-peredvyborchyh-sotsopytuvan-do-28-zhovtnya.  

Media Legislation

Other News

U-MEDIA AND ITS PARTNERS’ ACTIVITIES:

• October 24 – Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) announced that the legal hotline for journalists will work for the whole voting day on October 28. Journalists can call any of nine media lawyers on their mobiles to receive professional advice on how to inter-act with the members of the election commissions, how to justify journalists’ rights for video-recording and photo shooting, what to do if the journalists’ rights are violated. Phone #s are available at RPDI, Telekritika and U-Media web-sites, http://irrp.org.ua/news/rpdi/2611-garyacha-lnya-dlya-konsultuvannya-zhurnalstv-u-den-viborv.html.
  • October 24 – Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) held a 2-hour webinar for 16 journalists. Topic: creation of the interactive timelines and chronicle reporting. U-Media Advisor Mr. Oleg Khomenok provided journalists with a brief overview of available free of charge software for timelines reporting, and described information types that might be visualized through the interactive timelines, http://www.telekritika.ua/notices/2012-10-19/76032.
  • October 23 – Telekritika (TK), Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP), International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) and a supervisory board of the initiative “Open news for the transparent elections” held a press-conference to report if the TV channels keep professional standards in covering elections (if they provide difference political parties with equal access to national TV).  Monitoring experts reported about very small progress towards improvement of news balance. ICTV and Inter channels were the best reacting on monitoring results: they provided more news about the opposition and included more time of the opposition leaders’ direct speeches. However, news remained unbalanced and continued manipulations by providing incomplete and unbalanced news on elections, http://www.telekritika.ua/notices/2012-10-19/75936.
  • October 22 – Institute of Mass Information (IMI) held a press-conference to talk about domination of jeansa (hidden advertisement) in print media before the 2012 Parliamentary Elections: 184 stories were found in national print press in September 2012, which is 37 times more than in January 2012. According to the Director of the Media Law Institute (MLI) Mr. Taras Shevchenko, media owners do not feel responsibility for placement of jeansa due to the absence of the relevant state regulators’ reactions on the violations of journalist standards,http://vybory.mediasapiens.ua/2012/10/22/taras-shevchenko-zmi-ne-boyatsya-porushuvaty-zakon.
  • October 23 – Internews Ukraine (IUA) presented the android-application for its web-site ElectUA that made possible reporting on the crowdsourcing portal through mobile phones and tablets developed on the Android processor platform. Mobile application will allow journalists and active citizens to report about their evidences immediately by sending messages, photos and videos from all parts of Ukraine. IUA expects the majority of reports to be submitted to the site in the last pre-election week and on the voting day,http://electua.org/2012/10/23/android-dodatok-electua.
  • October 23 – Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) held a press-conference to report about the next wave of its content analysis of political advertisements in prime time programs on eight national channels. Content analysis of TV news programs aims at identifying the level of access of the leading political players and institutions to media during the pre-election campaign. Also, AUP analysed how the top TV channels followed professional standards. AUP experts fixed the reduction in the direct speech of the Party of Regions and the Opposition in prime-time news. However, the ruling Party of Regions is still the leading political institution in TV news of all channels – it received 2.5 times more channels’ attention than the Opposition, http://osvita.mediasapiens.ua/material/11481.
• October 23, Simferopol (Crimea) – Association of Free Journalists released an independent TV program “Focus” about professional standards of journalism which is broadcast on Chernomorskaya TRC. This issue was devoted to the installation of the video cameras on the voting stations. In this regard, a round table  "The right to elect and to be elected" was conducted by the IPC-Crimea in Simferopol, http://investigator.org.ua/tv/60759/
• October 22-23, Dnipropetrovsk – Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) in cooperation with the Institute of Innovative Technologies and Content at the Ministry of Education hold training “How to create a school newspaper” for the media literacy teachers of the secondary schools. A trainer: Mr. Serhiy Cherniavskiy, the Board Member of the Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers (UAPP),http://www.telekritika.ua/notices/2012-10-17/75973.
  • October 20 – Telekritika (TK) made an analysis how the national channels manipulated with reporting of recommendations of international observers on elections in Ukraine. After press conference on October 10, evening news of the TV channels Inter, “Ukraina”, STB and New Channel manipulated with information by violating a standard of completeness: they did not provide backgrounds of observing organizations and experts, did not name the State Committee on TV and Radio when told about TV news monitoring, http://bit.ly/RAAD2i.  
  • October 20, Yalta (Crimea) – Tavriya Institute for Regional Development (TIRD) published an interview with the Secretary General of the Permanent International Secretariat of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Mr. Victor Tvirkun,http://www.blackseanews.net/read/46980
  • October 19 – Telekritika (TK) published its monitoring report on the national TV channels’ coverage of the court case of Ms. Natalia Korolevska, Party “Ukraine Ahead!” against the sociological companies that published ratings of the political parties based on the pre-election polling. According to TK experts, eight national TV channels provided unbalanced news on the issue and used the same template to report on the court considerations,  http://osvita.mediasapiens.ua/material/11364.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• October 28 – Internews Ukraine (IUA) expects a huge volume of information to be collected, processed and placed on the crowdsourcing portal ELECTUA.ORG on the voting day. The portal already displayed over 1,000 violations reported by journalists and civic activists in regions of Ukraine, http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/1412768-electua-zapustil-prilozhenie-s-pomoshchyu-kotorogo-mozhno-budet-soobshchat-o-narusheniyah-na-vyborah.
•  October 28 – Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF) jointly with the Razumkov Center and Kyiv International Institute of Sociology will hold an exit pool on the voting day to study the citizens’ preferences. The Exit Pool results will be presented at four press conferences to be held in Kyiv on October 28.
• November 8-9, Dnipropetrovsk – Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) under the support of the Conrad Adenauer Foundation will conduct training for journalists on the energy reform reporting. An expert of the Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers (UAPP) Mr. Serhiy Cherniavskiy and the Head of the Ukrainian Office of Conrad Adenauer Foundation Ms. Gabriella Baumann will provide an overview of the current trends in Ukrainian reforms, speak to journalists on the legal specifics and will provide the best examples of western journalists’ reporting on the energy issues. Applications are to be sent before November 4 to AUP, http://www.telekritika.ua/notices/2012-10-23/76116.