But I decided to accept Freedom House’s invitation to take part in a June 14 discussion about the U.S.-based human rights organization’s recent report: “Sounding the Alarm: Protecting Democracy in Ukraine.” The report raised alarm bells about the decline in democracy since President Viktor Yanukovych took over on Feb. 25, 2010.

The best sound bite came from Damon Wilson, executive vice president of the Atlantic Council, who said: “Left unchecked, Ukraine is headed toward the path of autocracy and kleptocracy.”

Aside from the merits of the report, I found that these types of events haven’t changed much in Ukraine since I first started attending them in 1996.

What has improved is the ease of simultaneous translation – from Ukrainian to English and vice versa. It was essential to this event, because not all of the participants (including me) are fluent in Ukrainian or Russian.

But what hasn’t improved much is that journalists didn’t get to ask many questions during the two-hour event. It’s a good thing it wasn’t formally billed as a press conference because there was hardly any press in this conference.

Instead, the five speakers took up most of the first hour, while human rights activists and political rivals gave long monologues during the second hour.

Most of the theatrics centered on a sparring match between two political rivals, one with the pro-presidential Party of Regions and the other with the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko.

Hanna Herman, the deputy head of the Presidential Administration, came to forcefully defend the record of her boss on democracy and human rights.

Ex-Deputy Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyria, who works for opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, took up a front-and-center seat right next to Herman to challenge her.

Then other human rights activists got up and took their turns, called on by the moderator for the event – Yevhen Bystrytsky, executive director of the International Renaissance Foundation.

I don’t remember any journalists getting up and getting the chance to ask questions. I did not either. But it was hard to get a word in with this crowd of talkers.

However, in fairness, the participants did stick around afterwards and answered journalists’ questions, including mine.

“This was an open discussion, so if anybody from the journalists wanted to ask questions, I think this opportunity was available,” said Stanislav Lyachynskyy, spokesman for the International Renaissance Foundation. “The human rights activists were just more active. This was just a free discussion so first come, first served.”

Maybe so, but I’ve seen many televised press conferences where journalists were assembled and then reduced to the role of stenographers or human sponges – merely absorbing what was said and playing no journalistic role whatsoever. Kyiv Post reporters say these kinds of one-sided discussions, disguised as press events, take place frequently.

It’s a pity the moderators don’t cut off speakers who drone on. In fact, many of the monologues at the June 14 event contained no questions at the end, only commentary.

Journalists should lead the charge for a change in the rules of the game or start boycotting such events.

Brian Bonner, senior editor of the Kyiv Post, can be reached at [email protected].