On May 25, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and her Office prosecutors met with journalists.
The initiative was supported by representatives of the EU and the Council of Europe. The topics under discussion included developing mechanisms of rapid response to crimes against media workers. Because according to official statistics, there were 267 criminal proceedings for crimes against journalists in the first quarter of 2021 alone.
Behind these statistics are attacks on journalists, broken equipment, illegal wiretapping, obtaining information from phones, threats, etc.
The representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe recognize that protecting journalists’ rights is one of the key issues for the development of Ukraine and its movement towards European values and institutions.
The meeting focused on setting up a joint working group that will respond quickly to obstructing journalists’ work in any form. A representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office even provided his cell phone number so that journalists can report on any obstructive actions against them, their colleagues or newsrooms on a 24/7 basis.
During the meeting, the media community representatives brought up several high-profile cases, indicative of the issue of protecting journalists’ rights. Their range is rather broad: from bringing to justice those ordering the murder of Georgiy Gongadze and Pavlo Sheremet to properly investigating the obstruction of Mykhailo Tkach’s journalistic activities on the part of Viktor Medvedchuk’s bodyguards.
The next meeting of the Prosecutor General’s Office officials with journalists and representatives of media organizations is due to be held on June 3, 2021. For this meeting, proposals on how to organize the working group and a list of cases relating to violations of journalists’ rights requiring an immediate response from law enforcement agencies will be prepared.
Will this joint work to combat and reduce crimes against journalists be effective? Let us think logically: it is important to use every channel possible to convey important information about the cases of infringement on journalists’ rights to top officials, including those in the prosecutorial system. For instance, right after the meeting, there was information from the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office about a policeman receiving notification of suspicion of obstructing the work of Bohdan Kutiepov, a Hromadske TV journalist.
This case also came up during the meeting at the Prosecutor General’s Office. The working group’s effectiveness can be assessed over time because any good idea depends on how well the declared intentions are implemented. However, journalists should take additional opportunities to counter crimes against them. Here, a lot will depend on the media outlets’ commitment and consistent work. As well as on the opportunity to engage representatives of the National Police and other law enforcement agencies in the process. Meanwhile, media industry representatives have already formed a list of cases that need immediate consideration.
Dmytro Tuzov
Dmytro Tuzov, an expert at Souspilnist Foundation, journalist and NV Radio host
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