On Monday, Nov. 18, the journalist movement issued a statement, in which it encouraged Serhiy Kurchenko, owner of UMH media holding that publishes Forbes Ukraine, and owners of Forbes Media LLC to realize their responsibility and intervene to guarantee an independent editorial policy for the business magazine and website, in compliance with the license agreement and basic principles of freedom of speech.

After finalizing the purchase agreement for the media holding by UMH group of VETEK companies, owned by Kurchenko, the new management started to change the editorial policy.

According to the former employees of Forbes Ukraine, who resigned last week, the new management introduced new rules, in line with which journalists were forbidden to write about topics related to the ruling Party of Regions and high officials. In particular, journalists were not allowed to prepare and publish materials related to the current and previous rhetoric of the Party of Regions concerning Ukraine’s integration into Europe, the advisers to Vice Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov.

Also, according to them, the overall amount of political materials published was considerably reduced (from two per day to two per week).

In addition, the journalists claimed that they started to receive threats of lawsuits for compensation of moral damages for articles published in the past, and other sanctions, if they publicly criticized the magazine’s management or the owners of the holding.

Management asked the website journalists to resign based on “mutual consent of the parties” because, allegedly, “we will not be able to work together with you, anyway.”

This situation shows that the main goal of Kurchenko’s purchase of the media holding was to establish a strict control over the editorial policy of the outlet, which previously criticized its new owners. In particular, last year it published a journalist investigation about Kurchenko. 

The blacklist of forbidden topics published by Forbes Ukraine ex-journalists shows that Ukrainian authorities are afraid of being criticized, and the new management of the media holding UMH will attempt to remove any criticism from the mass media it controls.

The members of the movement “Stop Censorship!” urge Forbes Media management to respond immediately to the situation with censorship and journalists being fired, which caused immense damage to the reputation of the Ukrainian Forbes and can harm reputation of the well-known international brand.

“Stop Censorship!” urges serious measures to remind about the principles of editorial independence, the importance of compliance with the license agreement and respect for freedom of speech. Members of the movement deem the situation unacceptable, in which the materials published under the brand are being censored in the interests of a few people.

The movement “Stop Censorship!” also demands that Kurchenko publish his position in regard to the situation in which journalists of his media holding are being fired or forced to resign.

In particular, on Nov. 18, a number of journalists resigned from this media holding – this time, from the magazine and website Korrespondent, two of the nation’s leading news outlets.

The movement “Stop Censorship!” addresses the international organizations’ branches and the embassies in Ukraine, and suggests that they pay special attention to the mass layoffs of journalists because of censorship. 

As of Nov. 17, because of censorship and pressure this year, journalists of four well-known media outlets were rendered unable to do their jobs. Those include:

•    31 journalists from the channel TVi;
•    six editors from the UNIAN website and its correspondent in Brussels;
•    three journalists of Obkom website;
•    14 journalists of the Ukrainian edition of Forbes; and
•    the replacement of Korrespondent chief editor Vitaliy Sych on Nov. 18, as well as the resignation of several leading journalists.

All of this shows that the situation regarding freedom of speech in Ukraine continues to decay, regardless of the fact that the representatives of authorities several times declared their adherence to European fundamental values in general, and to freedom of speech in particular.

Oksana Romaniuk is the executive director of the Institute of Mass Information in Kyiv and Ukraine’s representation of the Reporters Without Borders international free speech watchdog. She writes this opinion article on behalf of 135 members of the “Stop Censorship” movement.