The Flow Of Information Causes Aggression, Says Politician

Michael Hedges January 30, 2014 - Follow on Twitter

All too common are vicious attacks on media workers. Beatings and shootings, robberies and other forms of intimidation are meant to keep inconvenient news off the television and out of the headlines. Authoritarian governments also create laws to limit or curtail information. Interestingly, it isn't having the desired effect.

Ukraine’s parliament voted Tuesday (January 28) almost unanimously and less anonymously to rescind a set of laws restricting public assembly, media freedom and other civil liberties shortly after Prime Minister Mykola Azarov tendered his resignation. Less than two weeks ago (January 16) Verkhovna Rada deputies adopted the measures by voice vote late in the evening with President Viktor Yanikovych signing immediately. Protests that had been simmering for two months exploded into rage.

Media workers covering the protests, Ukrainian and foreign, appear to have been targeted by riot police as well as the infamous ‘titushky’, young men roaming the streets with clubs. The Ukrainian Journalists Union had been handing out vests marked ‘press’ to journalists until somebody figured out this might be creating targets. More than 60 media workers suffered injuries, mostly beatings, since authorities began cracking down on protesters, according to media portal Telekritika (January 27). Police have detained media workers, usually releasing them after several hours in custody.

As protests moved from the capital Kiev to other regions so did reporters and photographers. A reporter and technician for Polish broadcaster Belsat TV were “shot at” and beaten by riot police in Cherkasy, central Ukraine. “We shouted that we were journalists,” said cameraman Sergei Marchuk, “and at some moment someone decided to release us.” Belsat TV broadcasts to Belarus and operates through Polish public television.

Covering demonstrations in Dnipropetrovsk, in southeastern Ukraine, Sunday (January 26), six media local media workers, mostly photojournalists, were injured by assailants unknown who smashed cameras and laptops. The journalist’s union asked the local prosecutor’s office to investigate. Dnipropetrovsk is hometown to former Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma, whose political career ended shortly after the 2004 Orange Revolution, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose political career ended in jail, and billionaire Victor Pinchuk, who owns four television channels and a newspaper.

The political and cultural divide in Ukraine, oft reported, remains, media in focus. “Insidious exposure” to television and the internet is damaging the “psyche” of Ukrainian people, said Donetsk Regional Administration chairman Andriy Shishatskiy, quoted by TSN TV (January 29). “This is extremely important,” he said. “The flow of information, technology with psychodrama, continuously poured on television screens and the internet is causing aggression. They are accountable.” The Donetsk region is in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

Last week a reporter and technician covering demonstrations in Donetsk for TV Donbass were roughed up by “unknown young men,” said a statement from Media Group Ukraine (January 22). “What we need is a mutually acceptable compromise based on democratic values,” said the statement. “Freedom of speech, freedom of the press are sure among them and nobody would put them in doubt. Each citizen of Ukraine has a right to information. So the journalists must have a possibility to perform their professional duty. And they have to be confident that they would stay alive and in good physical state. That's first and foremost. Violence and journalism are incompatible.”

Media Group Ukraine is one of several companies owned by Ukraine’s top billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, who has long been a supporter of President Yanikovych and the ruling Party of Regions. The language of the company statement has been interpreted as a growing divide between Ukraine’s billionaires and President Yanikovych.

Amnesty for protestors is present on the government agenda, one of the opposition’s demands, set for a vote on Wednesday (January 29). But amnesty for police officers accused of inappropriate behavior is strongly opposed. “No officer… will be covered by amnesty if he committed attacks on journalists,” said opposition politician Arseniy Yatsenyuk, quoted by Telekritika (January 29). President Yanikovych offered the prime minister’s job to Mr. Yatsenyuk, formerly Ukraine’s Economy Minister. He declined.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Press/Media Freedom - Challenges and Concerns

Press and media freedom worldwide is facing challenges from many corners. As authoritarian leaders impose strict control over traditional and new media with impunity, media watchers have concerns for democracy. This ftm Knowledge file accounts the troubles of this difficult decade. 88 pages. PDF (December 2011)

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