You're reading: Investigative journalist runs for parliament to fight corruption

Ukraine could soon have its answer to Russia’s anti-corruption crusader-cum-politician Aleksei Navalny – investigative journalist Tetiana Chornovil.

Chornovil has announced that she will run as an independent candidate in parliamentary elections in October this year, hoping to tap into widespread disillusionment with politicians of all stripes, widely seen as corrupt and ineffective.

“I want the people who are now in politics to disappear” as the country “is going nowhere,” Chornovil, 32, told the Kyiv Post. “And for this they [the politicians] have to be replaced by someone. For instance, by myself.”

Petite and quiet but with a reputation for toughness, Chornovil became famous for a number of publications revealing alleged corruption among leading political and business figures.

She has published investigations into the opulent properties of President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s family.

She was detained a number of times during attempts to sneak up to rich homes of the ruling political elite while doing research for her stories. Police officers who got to know started reading her investigations as a result, one of her friends wrote in a blog this week.

Chornovil also wrote about the shadowy past of the country’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who subsequently sued her in court. The website where the articles were published in 2007, Obozrevatel, later apologized and withdrew the articles. She, however, refused to do so.

Her decision to run in a single-mandate district was first announced on a friend’s blog at the beginning of January as an experiment to test people’s reaction. She said that the numerous positive responses led her to decide to run for one of the 225 districts that will elect lawmakers in first-past-the-post races. The other 225 seats in the Verkhovna Rada will be elected from party lists.

Popular blogger Yevhen Ikhelzon called Chornovil’s decision “a strong move” that will confuse the plans of political technologists. “Proposing 225 crystal honest people is a task for all influential social groups that don’t want thieves and crooks to rule Ukraine,” he said in his blog.

I want the people who are now in politics to disappear…

– Tetiana Chornovil

The phrase “thieves and crooks” is borrowed from Russian anti-corruption blogger Navalny, who has emerged in recent weeks as a leader of protests against the political elite in Moscow.

Ikhelzon co-organized a loose civic group called “We are Europeans” last year with the aim of promoting European values and the idea that new leaders are coming to eventually replace the existing political elite

“There is a demand for people from civil society to come into politics,” political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said. “And there are some pretenders for this role.”

He named Oleksandr Danylyuk, head of activist movement Spilna Sprava [Common Cause] and Borys Novozhylov, who led protests against cuts in social benefits, as other potential new faces on the political scene.

The demand for new politicians is high as disillusionment with the current government grows, while the opposition remains widely discredited for failings during its time in office.

More than 30 percent of people called President Viktor Yanukovych “the disillusionment of the year,” according to a recent poll by the Razumkov Center think tank.

Meanwhile, despite the imprisonment of opposition leader ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2011, her political party Batkivshchyna didn’t show a significant rise in popularity, with 16 percent of support against 13 percent for pro-government Regions Party, Razumkov Center said in December.

Chornovil currently works as an independent investigative reporter and writes for respected news websites Ukrainska Pravda and Livyi Bereh.
She said she will continue investigating corruption in parliament, using the wider lawmakers’ means to influence officials. “Maybe I will work with the group of journalists or will be publishing myself,” she said.

Chornovil was already involved in political activity about 10 years ago as a member and press-secretary of right-wing nationalist party UNA-UNSO, famous for its radical political slogans and daring street actions.

In 2001 Chornovil handcuffed herself to the rail lines in protest against the imprisonment of some of her party’s members who campaigned against then-President Leonid Kuchma. Soon after that a part of party members were forced to cooperate with the authorities, she said, which made her quit.

In 2002 she assisted in the parliamentary election campaign of Andriy Shkil, the former UNA-UNSO leader, who was then in pre-trial detention. Shkil won the campaign in majority district of Lviv region and was released, as lawmakers are immune from prosecution.

She believes that with good management a sum of about $30,000 will be enough to win her campaign. She will create a fund, supported by ordinary citizens, and is appealing to the online community to consider donating.

Political analyst Fesenko warned that campaigning in a single-mandate district could require hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars. He added that it may be difficult for a good journalist to become a good politician, which requires different skills.

There are already about half-dozen lawmakers who used to be famous journalists before coming into parliament, such as Andriy Shevchenko from Batkivshchyna and Volodymyr Ariyev from Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense.

Media expert Natalia Ligachova said that the discipline of the parties they represent now “limit their freedom for action,” so she hailed Chornovil’s choice to attempt to become a non-partisan lawmaker.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]