On the morning of July 2 Ihor Oleksandrov, a journalist of the TOR Television Company in Slovyansk (Donetsk oblast), was severely beaten with baseball bats on his way to work. According to the Institute on Mass Information in Kyiv, the attack on Oleksandrov is the twentieth case of harassment and threats of physical violence against journalists in Ukraine in 2001. If some attacks listed in the IMI’s Barometer of Freedom blacklist give ground to doubt the actual motives of the attackers, this particular case is directly linked with the victim’s professional activities, as was the attempt in late May to blow up the home of Odesa Plus Television Company Director Mykhailo Kolomeya. Oleksandrov’s colleagues assume that the beating was triggered by his sharp comments in his television program Without Retouching. Meanwhile, police believes that vengeance was behind the accident, Gen. V. Malyshev told journalists at a press conference the following day in Donetsk. UNIAN quotes People’s Deputy Oleksandr Shekhovtsov as saying that the attack on the journalist has a political background and indicates the initial stage of preparing for 2002 parliamentary elections by Donetsk criminal clans. Commenting on the attempt to blow up his home, Odesa Plus director Kolomeya was more specific, saying that “on the eve of the election campaign some groups want to bring an independent company under control.” Kolomeya escaped death by a fluke, while Ihor Oleksandrov is now in a coma and doctors say he stands little chance of survival.
It seems that future election battles have taken a sad start marred with such violence. This is definitely a warning signal to those who will be involved in covering the campaign, both to individual journalists and to mass media outlets that strive to be impartial. Apparently, those with the bats are short of the time and arguments needed to solve their claims in court. The intimidation of journalists could well become the intimidation of society, leading to a situation such that Ukrainians, despite their declared right to have access to information about would-be lawmakers, will simply be too frightened to have this information.
Incidentally, in the five months of 2001 IMI experts have registered fifty cases of infringing on journalists’ rights, pressure on the mass media by officials, and censorship of publications.
P.S. The staff of the TOR Television Company appeals to all those who care for the life of Ihor Oleksandrov to send their donations to Account No. 2620654791 opened in the name of A. I. Oleksandrov with Enerhobank (Slovyansk) MFO 335690 OKPO 24645405.
