Mr. President!
We, the journalists of Ukraine, are angered by your demeaning comments towards our colleague Serhiy Leshchenko from the Internet newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda, which you made during a press conference on July 25th, 2005.
We think it not appropriate for the leader of a European country to respond to a question about the way of life of his son in such tone and with such choice of words. "Hired hitman", "muzzle", "journalist who never worked for a minute of his life towards the freedom of press" - all these words are an insult to journalists of Ukraine.
You swore to stand up for the freedom of press when you were standing on Maidan during Orange Revolution. We remember your declarations which reiterated these aspirations: "I give you my word, on all my actions I will personally report to you. For every private matter my family will report to you. I demand that every government official in Ukraine will act in the same manner." (18.07.2005, MIA meeting). "We want to support a special caste of Ukrainian journalists - proud, honest and brave. The best means of transport for democracy is the mass media!" (9.07.2005, "Our Ukraine" party congress).
Now you infringe on the freedom of speech, which today consists of free access to information, including the life of public officials. You have to understand that you and your family are the focus of the attention in society. The people have the full right to know about the revenues, the spending and the lifestyle of your family.
Your behaviour continued a trend that has been worrying journalists. We speak of:
- Numerous accusations of impartiality of the press during the coverage of political topics (for example, the scandal about the Justice Minister Zvarych's education).
- Allegations of attempts to put Internet publications under state control.
- Practically a sabotage of the creation of public television and radio in place of the state media.
- A restriction on mass media publications about the platforms of political parties (amendments to the law on elections of MPs).
All this forces us to speak of the descent of this country away from freedom of speech, towards censorship and self-censorship. During the rule of your predecessor, this caused a practical impossibility of maintaining journalistic independence and was the beginning of the end of the un-democratic regime.
In view of the above, we demand that you:
1) Publically apologize to the Ukrayinska Pravda correspondent Serhiy Leshchenko.
2) Reply to questions of journalists about your family's sources of revenue and spending.
We demand that you always respect the profession of journalism and the constitutional right of freedom of speech and free access to information.
26.07.2005
Kyiv.
(200 signatures)
