The other day one of my friends, who is an adviser to a Ukrainian member of parliament, expressed her low opinion of Ukrainian journalists: “Nobody likes them. They are always sniffing around for some ‘kompromat,’ noticing only bad stuff. They are poor and unhappy, and jealous of the more successful people in this country.”
Increasingly, in Ukraine, journalist investigations into the luxurious lifestyles of Ukrainian civil servants and other power holders are looking like a class conflict.
A June 6 action of Kyiv journalists from the Stop Censorship campaign looked to be part of this class conflict. They tried, unsuccessfully, to get access to the luxurious presidential Mezhyhirya residence outside Kyiv.
On the official Day of the Journalist holiday in Ukraine, about 60 journalists trekked 15 kilometers north of the capital, uninvited, to the president’s luxury mansion, the former state-owned estate privatized under mysterious circumstances.
The trip came in response to Yanukovych’s unfulfilled impromptu promise made a year earlier, during a press conference, to bring journalists by bus to Mezhyhirya.
This clubhouse is one of many buildings in President Viktor Yanukovych’s residential-entertainment complex in Mezhyhirya. Questions remain about how a formerly state-owned property ended up in his control. (Alex Furman)
Yanukovych’s Mezhyhirya residence became a symbol and object of intense journalistic interest. Allegedly, Yanukovych acquired control of these 140 hectares of state land as prime minister through complicated financial schemes and without paying the full price for it.
Currently, Mezhyhirya as a presidential residence, is a high security compound of several buildings where no photographs are allowed. An investigation by Ukrainska Pravda news site revealed that Yanukovych adores leading the glitzy lifestyle of pop stars and gangsters.
Somewhat like Michael Jackson, Yanukovych has, in his residence, created a private zoo that reportedly used to include such strange creatures for Ukraine as kangaroos.
In Ukraine, corruption remains a major topic for journalists who are trying to prevent powerholders from stealing from their own people. Ukraine’s biggest problem might be that society and the authorities do not trust each other.
While the people try to not pay taxes, those in power seem bent on looting the country – with independent journalists serving as the only hindrance.
It feels as if journalists constitute a “ghettoized” community. Unlike their counterparts in Washington, Ukrainian journalists stick to each other at conferences or receptions. This is because Ukrainian officials only rarely mingle with journalists, as happens in Western societies.
Surprisingly, perhaps for an outsider, Ukrainian civil servants are not even trying to hide their wealth. To the contrary, they tastelessly flaunt it.
The post-Soviet generation of the Ukrainian elite was, in their youth, deprived of material wealth.
Now they are trying to compensate with shamefully expensive cars, with Dior or Zilly written on their chests.
They wear massive and expensive jewels during the daytime, for no special reason other than to proclaim they have money.
Recently there have been positive developments, like the adopted law for access to public information or the new website “Our Money” (http://nashigroshi.org/) that analyzes the transparency of governmental tenders. These small steps forward will hopefully help journalists to address the topic of corruption in a more effective way.
When one compares journalists in the capitals of the United States and Ukraine, differences are right on the surface.
In Ukraine, journalism is seen as a calling or as civic activism, rather than as a profession. This is why, unlike its clear-cut professional category in Washington, D.C., the journalistic class of Kyiv comprises a more broadly defined, expansive and numerous group.
When one compares high civil servants and journalists in Ukraine, their very looks already indicate that they belong to two different, even polarized strata of society.
It feels as if journalists constitute a “ghettoized” community. Unlike their counterparts in Washington, Ukrainian journalists stick to each other at conferences or receptions. This is because Ukrainian officials only rarely mingle with journalists, as happens in Western societies. A climate of antagonism and mutual disrespect characterizes their relationship.
Certain officials, like for instance Party of Regions deputy Yan Tabachnik, assert that 85 percent of journalists are nothing more than slaves of their masters, and no watchdogs of democracy.
Indeed, many Ukrainian media outlets are not sustainable businesses. They are owned by oligarchs as possessions of prestige and instruments of influence.
One of the achievements remains of the 2004 Orange Revolution that overturned Viktor Yanukovych’s rigged presidential election. There is more solidarity among journalists now; they have become a powerful actor in Ukrainian civil society.
However, recent developments in Ukrainian politics have shown that by owning a media outlet in Ukraine can also be risky. As media owners are dependent on the government, it is hard for journalists to perform their watchdog function. Indeed some of them are writing “paid-for” articles to supplement low salaries.
With all that criticism, one of the achievements remains of the 2004 Orange Revolution that overturned Viktor Yanukovych’s rigged presidential election. There is more solidarity among journalists now; they have become a powerful actor in Ukrainian civil society.
To be sure, most of the journalistic investigations revealing crime and corruption among Ukrainian officials are being ignored by the law enforcement agencies as well as by the accused. Nevertheless, this journalistic work is not in vain and will have long-term consequences for Ukrainian society.
Eventually, Yanukovych will understand that it is not journalists who are jealous of him living in Mezhyhirya, but the whole Ukrainian people. Journalists are not pre-paid hit men. They represent the moods and interests of society and act as voices of the common people.
There is a feeling in Ukraine’s impoverished society that power holders acquired their wealth dishonestly. Such acute social injustice cannot last long in a relatively free country.
Even in authoritarian countries like Tunisia, journalists and citizens eventually managed to see the interior and the wealth of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s residence. Unfortunately, this only happened when massive protests ousted the president from the country earlier this year.
Olena Tregub is a freelance Kyiv Post correspondent in Washington, D.C.
