The Dnepr Vecherniy, one of the oldest and most influential newspapers of Dnipropetrovsk, has become an objective of a raider’s attack. Its facility on the seventh floor of the Zorya publishing house got controlled by a private security agency, and a newspaper with the same name and logo got registered by the Derzhkomteleradio (State Committee on Television and Radio) of Ukraine. At the press-conference held in the Dnipropetrovsk House of Journalists Victor Mishchenko, the newspaper’s director, called the events a menacing precedent, which threatens the freedom of speech in Ukraine. To his mind the Dnepr Vecherniy is going to be overtaken according to the same scenario as the one that enabled the raiders to seize the Ozerka market alongside with some other facilities in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
The town newspaper of Dnipropetrovsk used to circulate for fifteen years as a product of the collective enterprise established by the Dnepr Vecherniy journalists. But, as V. Mishchenko informed the reporters, due to the changes in the Ukrainian legislation it had been decided in 2005 to change the form of property, and to create a limited liability company. The liquidation of the collective enterprise was carried on by a special commission, which included the editorial board representatives and three representatives of the Dnipropetrovsk City Executive Committee. Later the city clerks were withdrawn from the commission “due to being excessively busy”, and got substituted by one of the city district courts of justice’s verdict by the persons unknown to the editorial board, particularly the arbitral manager as the chairperson of the liquidation commission. In the meantime, as the court sittings were going on, a hardly known law firm managed to register a newspaper with the same title at the Derzhteleradio of Ukraine, and even organize its printing in neighboring Zaporizzha. The attempt to get rid of the Dnepr Vecherniy management was made at the conference of the collective enterprise shareholders. When this attack failed, and the newspaper staff of 60 workers signed contracts with the Dnepr Vecherniy Newspaper Editorial Board limited liability company, the struggle for the newspaper went another way. On the New Year’s Eve the chairperson of the liquidation commission, said V. Mishchenko, demanded him to give her the documents and the stamp, but got refused. After that the Dneprodzerzhinsk Zavodskoy district court of justice issued the verdict, which enabled a private security agency to occupy and secure the newspaper editorial board facility early in the morning on January 12. At the moment, despite the verdict has been appealed against, some “total strangers” control the facility. Both the editor-in-chief and director’s offices’ doors are unsealed; the invaders got access to the computer resources and the editorial network.
Yu. Tatarinova, the arbitral manager, who was present at the press conference, denied the accusations of raiding. She claimed to be a private entrepreneur licensed to liquidate enterprises. At the same time Yu. Tatarinova failed to answer some reporters’ questions. However, she promised to continue the newspaper’s circulation, in spite of the complicated circumstances.
Local authorities avoid commenting on the situation around the Dnepr Vecherniy. At the same time, some representatives of the Pryvat Group that is close to Yulia Tymoshenko’s Block, were unofficially told to got interested in the newspaper. Antonina Ulyakhina, the head of the Batkivshchyna Party regional organization (and Yulia Tymoshenko’s aunt), considers such suspicions to be groundless. “Neither ByuT, nor Batkivshchyna are connected this or that way with the case,” she stated. “ Let the opposing sides decide their dispute in court, and we shall study the official information, when it comes.”
