As Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych stood proudly on a Kyiv stage
telling hundreds of the world’s publishers and journalists that
censorship is just a stereotype in Ukraine, he thought he was the
“Good.”

He turned out to be an
“Ugly Liar,” as demonstrated by the drama that unveiled in the
audience
. The “ugly” events that unfolded gave visitors of the
World Association and Newspapers and News Publishers, and the World
Editors Forum a snapshot of Ukraine’s deteriorating state of media
freedoms and freedom of expression.

In a silent and peaceful
protest, about 15 Ukrainian journalists pulled out posters reading
“Stop Censorship” as Yanukovych started speaking. A few guards
with official blue badges swiftly moved to protect their “boss”
on stage from seeing the content of the posters, or being humiliated
by them.

Sadly for them, their
tactics backfired.

Nearly 20 journalists and supporters of free speech risk the wrath of security officials in staging a silent protest as President Viktor Yanukovych on Sept. 3 addressed the World Newspaper Congress in Kyiv. (Facebook of Mustafa Nayyem)

One of them, a tall
light-haired man, approached me from behind. He pulled me roughly by
the shoulders and yanked the poster out of my hands. Then he moved on
to do the same to Olena Prytula, chief editor of Ukraine’s most
read online news portal Ukrainska Pravda, who stood right next to me.

A short scuffle followed
as we tried to reclaim our posters. We were shocked that he dared to
scuffle with two women, a couple of perfectly peaceful posters, in
the middle of a conference full of journalists while Yanukovych was
speaking about how he will protect media freedoms.

Stripped of our posters,
we quickly pulled out our notebook computers and wrote the same
anti-censorship messages on the screen, holding it out for all to
see. The guard then stood in front of us, attempting to shield us
from Yanukovych’s view.

What made the situation
comical is that he attacked the chief editor of the most read online
news source in Ukraine as his own president stood on the stage
saying: “Ukraine has made its way, without exaggeration, from total
censorship to an open society.”

To add to the surrealism
of the whole affair, another dozen journalists, including Kyiv Post
Editor Brian Bonner
, were left untouched holding similar posters amid
in other sections of the audience.

Could the other guards not
reach them? Or did their brains kick in, signaling that it would be
unwise to squash peaceful protesters in the middle of an audience of
1,000 people from the news industry?

In an episode where the
absurd became reality, the other guards filmed the other the
protesters with their cameras as journalists in the audience turned
their cameras on them.

All of this cross-filming
and other minor dramas were instantly and dutifully reported on
twitter, Facebook and blogs by dozens of foreign witnesses who,
stunned from what they were seeing, took pictures with their phones
and madly tapped keyboards of their digital devices.

Many of them later
expressed concern for the protestors. “If they’re doing this in
front of us, what are they going to do to you when you come out of
here?” asked Anette Novak, a board member of the World Editors
Forum and one of the event organizers.

In this particular case,
they needn’t have worried about. The violent guards disappeared as
soon as the president left the room.

Later, the presidential
guard issued an official statement alleging that the attacker was not
one of their staff, but a private individual. This is nonsense,
because he had a document certifying he was a n official guard, and
he acted (and then disappeared) in coordination with the rest of the
security. He may not be on staff of the presidential guard, but he
could be a members of the SBU state security service, or another
dozen budget-sponsored security agencies.

Larry Kilman, deputy CEO
of WAN/IFRA, expressed public support for the protest. “One of the
main focuses of these events is to defend and promote press freedom.
By choosing Ukraine as our venue, we stand in solidarity with the
local independent press, and draw international attention to the
situation here. The protesters were a very powerful reminder that
there is still much to be done,” she said.

Kilman is right indeed.
Ukraine has a dismal record as far as freedom of expression goes.
International watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked the nation
116th in its freedom of speech rating in 2011-2012, up from its
all-time low of 131 the year before.

Journalists are threatened
with criminal cases and face a danger of violence and occasionally
even death from officials as well as law enforcers. TV channels that
attempt to report on corruption by influential officials or present a
view alternative that of oligarch-owned channels that are loyal to
the president are silenced through a whole range of means.

A good case in point is
channel TVi. After being left without digital licenses by the
regulator last year, it is being pushed out of cable networks, which
are in turn pressured by the National TV and Radio Council, the same
regulator.

This cuts the channel’s
audience and chances for survival. Combined with pressure from tax
authorities, the channel can go bankrupt, while its founder Mykola
Kniazhytskiy (who is now running for parliament with the opposition
to get immunity from prosecution) can potentially face criminal
charges.

The story of TVi is, in
some ways, hardly news. After all, in Ukraine, law enforcers,
regulators and threats of criminal charges are often used to silence
journalists and prevent them from doing their jobs.

Many media face censorship
from the owners and managers, and often practice self-censorship. As
a result, the public has little access to objective information, but
plenty of propaganda, pro-presidential spin and paid-for content with
no clear marking.

For journalists, access to
information is getting more restricted as a number of new laws have
been approved. The law on private information is cited any time a
journalist attempts to get a hold of an official’s declaration and
match it with the properties they live in and cars they drive.

A recent law has allowed
the government to stop disclosing the results of public procurement
tenders, which have in the past allowed journalists to uncover a
number of potentially corrupt deals, such as the oil drilling
equipment bought from a murky offshore company at inflated prices
under the watch of Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko.

Thanks to Ukraine’s
ridiculous legislation, censorship can be legalized. According to one
interpretation of copyright legislation, anyone interviewed by a
journalist is co-author of their story, giving them a right to edit
and kill the content.

There is little will or
prospect that the situation will change for the better any time soon,
hence the Sept. 3 journalistic protest. It was addressed to the
international community as much as it was to the president.

The community is still
figuring out what it can do to help. But the president,
traditionally, has pretended the problem isn’t there.

He’s still the “Ugly.”

Kyiv Post deputy
editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at
[email protected].

More video from the incident can be viewed here:

http://video.telekritika.ua/show/no_comment/1142-video_aktivisti_stop_tsenzuri%21_pokrawili_promovu_ianukovicha_reportazh_03.09.2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpI8eLX7Ljc&feature=plcp