Increased interest shown by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly to monitor the conditions under which mass media exist in Ukraine has been provoked by Ukraine itself, member of the Verkhovna Rada and deputy chairman of the Green Party for political issues Serhy Kurykin said, speaking in an Internet-conference last Thursday. According to him, the Gongadze case is to be investigated by the subcommittee on the freedom of the press, the assembly’s committee on culture. But in the aftermath of the Kyiv- Strasbourg TV bridge late September of last an year which had been disrupted by anonymous a bomb hoax call, the committee members right in the TV studios made a proposal that the issue be considered by the committee. The issue has been automatically put on the plenary session agenda. In fact, S.Kurykin is convinced that the assembly’s decision has been provoked by the reaction of the Ukrainian authorities to a conflict situation.
As Kurykin noted, a very serious conflict was unfolding in the Czech Republic at the time which could affect the functioning of mass media in that country. The Czech authorities, however, have shown readiness to reach a compromise, and Czech officials did not break the law. Nor did they try to whitewash their fellow officials. When the state “shows readiness for effective cooperation with the public, conforms to internationally accepted principles of the freedom of the press, and acts strictly within the limits of the law, there is no need for the international organizations to get involved,” the People’s Deputy said.
The Kyiv-Strasbourg TV bridge broke up following an anonymous call to the police in Kyiv saying that the TV broadcasting facility had been mined. Journalists participating in the bridge then established link with Strasbourg with the help of their mobile phones.
Answering a question on PA’s possible sanctions against Ukraine, Kurykin said the influx of new members in the European Council has eroded its values as the majority of newcomers, Ukraine including, reveal undemocratic trends of their development.
Mr. Kurykin does not rule out that Ukraine will lose its voting right in the Parliamentary Assembly, stressing, however, that this measure “will hardly help resolve the problem.” In the lawmaker’s assessment, there is a danger of international isolation for Ukraine. Still, he expressed hope that this is not going to happen as there are no reasons why Ukraine should fail to meet its commitments and there is sufficient political will in the country to unravel the Gongadze case, Forum reports (www.for.com.ua).
In his earlier interview with Interfax-Ukrayina, Kurykin said that last Monday’s meeting of President Kuchma with the members of Ukraine’s delegation was held “in a constructive spirit” and, therefore, the Ukrainian lawmaker felt sorry that Kuchma “had not been aware before of the need to hold similar meetings.”
