The Reform Support Network, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, and the Civic Assembly of Ukraine consider it inadmissible to deny public access to the information on the functioning of the self-governance bodies and their officials, in particular shortly before the next local elections. We are deeply indignant about the frequent cases of physical violence against public figures which monitor the election campaign.
On 14 September 2010, in Kherson, during the report made by the City Mayor Volodymyr Saldo, some unknown individuals beat Dementiy Bilyi, Head of Kherson Office of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine and journalist of the Free Choice newspaper. Violating the legislative guarantees of the journalistic activities, first, the security did not want to let him (as well as other journalists and as number of opposition deputies) into the whole, the Mayor was reporting, and later some unknown individuals caused Mr Bilyi some injures after he tried to address the Mayor publicly in order to find out why the any access to the event was denied. As a result, the journalist has had hypertonic crisis and cerebral contusion.
The Reform Support Network, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, and the Civic Assembly of Ukraine see in the actions of the unknown individuals the crimes that are subject to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, in particular, obstruction of the journalists work and causing bodily injury. In addition, the incident is yet another damage to the international image of Ukraine, in particular soon before Ukraine’s presidency in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (May – November 2011).
We call on the public authorities of Ukraine to react to the situation and apply the relevant sanctions in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution and laws. In particular, we call on the President of Ukraine, the Ombudsman, the Parliamentary Committee for Freedom of Speech and Information, as well as the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights, National Minorities, and Interethnic Relations.
We call on the international community, in particular the Reporters Without Borders, to give international publicity to the described case, which goes in line with the reversal of democracy in Ukraine, as well as to mention this instance in the reports issued by monitoring organizations.
Finally, we call on the Mayor of Kherson Volodymyr Saldo to apologize publicly to Dementiy Bilyi for the incident that occurred at the event arranged by the city authorities and to organize another event for the public of the city in presence of everybody interested.
16.09.2010
Reform Support Network, Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Civic Assembly of Ukraine Statement
