August 6, 1999
His Excellency Leonid Kuchma
President of Ukraine
vul. Bankivska 11
Kyiv, Ukraine
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly troubled by your government’s recent suspension of all broadcasts by four independent television stations on the Crimean peninsula.
On July 26, your government’s frequency inspection agency ordered the state-run Crimean Radio and Television Broadcasting Center (CRTBC) to halt transmissions by Chornomorska TV, the largest private broadcaster in the region. The order also applied to three other Crimean TV stations: in Simferopol, Dzhankoy and Kerch. The agency claimed that because CRTBC had allocated frequencies within Crimea without approval from Kyiv authorities, the stations were operating without proper licenses.
Yet while these four stations have been shut down, other regional and local government-run stations continue to broadcast with purportedly illegal licenses. The timing of the frequency inspection agency’s order is also suspicious. After all, Chornomorska TV had been broadcasting daily news and feature programs under its current license for eight years.
CPJ believes the move was a politically-motivated effort by your administration to control the airwaves in the months preceding the October 31 presidential election. Previous attempts by Crimean officials to cut off the station’s broadcasts before national parliamentary elections in March 1998 failed only after public and international groups protested.
This latest action follows a series of attempts this year by your administration to muzzle independent and opposition television stations in Ukraine. In June, your government alleged “technical violations” to justify ordering the private, Kyiv-based STB television channel to halt satellite broadcasts to its affiliates around the country. Station managers believe that the real motive for the suspension was retaliation for a series of investigative reports about top officials allegedly involved in corrupt business practices. STB defied the order and continued broadcasting after its protests received broad domestic and international media attention.
As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to defending the universally recognized rights of our colleagues around the world, CPJ strongly protests the silencing of the Chornomorska, Simferopol, Dzhankoy, and Kerch TV stations in Crimea. Suspending their right to broadcast in reprisal for their work violates all your government’s international commitments to guarantee media freedom. CPJ strongly urges you to use the powers of your office to ensure that the four stations may resume broadcasting. We further ask that all journalists in Ukraine be allowed to practice their profession without fear of reprisal.
Thank you for your attention to these urgent matters. We await your reply.
Sincerely,
Ann. K. Cooper
Executive Director
Join CPJ in Protesting Attacks on the Press in Ukraine
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His Excellency Leonid Kuchma
President of Ukraine
vul. Bankivska 11
Kyiv, Ukraine
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