The list of “Press Enemies-2006”, the first Ukrainian anti-rating, is headed by Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetskiy, Party of Regions lawmaker Oleh Kalashnikov, and Archbishop Pavel, the vicar of the Kyiv Pecherskiy Lavra Monastery.
The list of the press enemies was presented at a press conference in UNIAN by the Institute of Mass Media and the Media-Trade Union of Ukraine.
Conference participants noted that L.Chernovetskiy illegally restricted the access of journalists to the information concerning activities of the Kyiv city hall, pressed mass media by means of suits, publicly insulted journalists, introduced censorship in communal mass media, and violates the legislation as he sacked and continues sacking journalists of communal mass media.
O.Kalashnikov is connected with beating of an STB television’s camera group, he did not respond to the demand of more than 1000 journalists to admit his guilt and publicly threatened journalists.
On 28 August of 2006, Archbishop Pavel took place in seizing by force a cassette from a camera group of TV 5 Kanal, he pressed to sack journalist Natalia Tuhuzova, who asked him an inconvenient question, he did not recognize the right of journalists and the society to receive information, law-enforcement agencies refused to bring a criminal case against him.
In addition, the list of Press Enemies – 2006 includes also: Party of Regions lawmaker Dmytro Shmelev, who beat photo-correspondent Andriy Avdoshyn on 3 June of 2006 for taking photos during a session of the Kharkiv City Council; Crimean Verkhovna Rada chairman Anatoliy Hrytsenko, who introduced illegal restrictions of journalist accreditation on 7 December and forced more than 50 Crimean journalists to went on a protest action; Donetsk Mayor Oleksander Lukianchenko, who restricted the access of journalists to the City Council session on 11 September of 2006, and sued “Hromadska Pravda” newspaper on 3 October for publication of caricatures of him.
The seventh place in the list was occupied by Party of Regions lawmaker Vassyl Kyselyov, who proposed to introduce a criminal responsibility for slander, and was trying to close the Chornomorska TV-Radio Company.
Among the press enemies in 2006, are also Lviv Oblast Council chairman Mykhaylo Sendak, who publicly pressed journalists of Lviv-TV Oblast television, demanding to give him access to the air, and also demanded to remove certain programs from the air; Ladyzhyn city of the Vinnytsia Oblast Mayor Valeriy Kolomoytsev, who brought a suit at 100 thousand hryvnias against Liudmyla Holovashyn, editor of “Ladyzhynska Hazeta” in November of 2006, and did not allow a correspondent of this newspaper to attend a session of the city council.
The tenth place in the rating is occupied by Verkhovna Rada chairman Oleksander Moroz, for he brought numerous suits against printed and Internet mass media for critical publications about him.
