today 21.05.2013 17:44
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Human Rights in Ukraine Information website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group |
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Over 150 journalists held a protest on Monday following the attack on Olha Snitsarchuk and Vladyslav Sodel on Saturday by so-called antifascists öðøñð took place in full view of police officers who did not intervene despite being asked for help (and clearly needing it). 
In full view of the police Olha Snitsarchuk from TV Channel 5 and Vladyslav Sodel a Kommersant Ukraine photographer were beaten by unidentified louts. The police did not intervene despite being asked for protection several times by the journalists. 
Those who orchestrated the recent hatchet-job on TVi probably counted on demoralization and division within the channel and beyond. They may have misfired 
2012 saw a record 324 recorded violations of journalists’ rights, with this being the largest number over the last 10 years. Only some 5% of those responsible face any penalties 
On 3 May 2013, Press Freedom Day, Ukraine came in for some well-earned and damning criticism and the US Helsinki Commission called for a proper investigation into the murder of Volodymyr Honcharenko, well-known environmentalist and editor of an environmental newspaper. 
The group of TVi journalists who on 23 April announced a strike over the apparent seizure of the last independent TV channel in Ukraine have now handed in their resignations. 
Reporters without Borders has condemned the sudden change in management at TVi, while the International Federation of Journalists has backed the strike by TVi staff and called for transparent and regulated media ownership in the country. 
Following the dramatic events on Tuesday at TVi, the journalists on strike have formed a trade union, headed by Mustafa Nayem and have issued their demands. The current situation is of immense concern and the demands are given here in full 
There is general bemusement as to what actually happened on 23 April, but the suspicion is widespread that this is a new attempt to crush the last more or less independent TV channel in the country 
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union has issued a statement expressing concern over recent events concerning the Ukrainian Bar. 
A TVi film crew, who went together with Democratic Alliance activists, to investigate how the authorities were fighting the flood used as justification for banning yet another peaceful demonstration, encountered problems from the police, not the elements. 
The Internet site Prestupnosti.net reports that on 8 April, before a visit by President Yanukovych, Mykolaiv police officers tried to detain a journalist photographing road repairs. 
While detentions are taking place and Party of the Regions MPs claiming attempted murder over a snowball onslaught, those who attack journalists go unpunished and sometimes unimpeded by police officers 
The Sumy Regional Court of Appeal has upheld the sentences against two young men, one of whom was charged only with posting the Yanukovych placard here. 
In an extraordinary defamation suit Pavlo Lebedev had demanded 10 thousand USD from a journalist, and that the court restrict her movements and freeze her immoveable assets 
Maxim Mahera from the civic watchdog which monitors drivers’ rights Dorozhny Kontrol [Road Control] has been jailed for three days even though the road code no longer requires that the document be handed over, simply shown 
First Deputy Prosecutor General, Renat Kuzmin wants to criminalize “defamation”, which, unlike libel, can include true statements. At least within shooting range of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, this would silence all those unpleasant accusations of selective justice, judicial dependence etc 
The court has revoked the fifteenth refusal by the police to initiate a criminal investigation over the occasion when the Express newspaper office came under gunfire. 
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