1. Report for the Government of
Ukraine
Ukraine’s roadblock to the EU:attacks on the
press
Analysis by Una Hrnjak
SIS 645
Summer 2012
Submitted on: June 28, 2012
Executive Summary
Ukraine is a fairly new democratic republic, still transforming from a communist society
to adopting democratic principles. Since gaining its independence from the USSR, Ukrainian
leaders have expressed their deepest commitment to human rights – including media freedom.
Over the last decade however, the world has grown skeptical of Ukraine’s respect for the media,
causing organizations like the European Union to question Ukraine’s sincere commitment to
democracy and sincere interest in joining the Union. This report will review the Law of Ukraine
“On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine”, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the
policy. The report will conclude by recommending steps for improvement of the policy to the
Government of Ukraine to not only help the government better protect freedom of speech and
expression but also to comply with EU mandates.

2. Introduction
Following the break-up of the USSR, Ukraine gained independence in 1991 and began its
transformation from a communist society to a democratic society; promoting a civil society and
human rights including freedom of speech. Ukraine included such vows in its Constitution,
legislation as well as through the adoption of various international treaties. This report will focus
particularly on the Law “On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine”which granted newspapers
the right to function and limited censorship.
Since Ukraine’s origin the government has remained dedicated to adopting international
human rights standards and treaties in relation to media freedom but there have been some
questions raised with President ViktorYanukovych’s commitment to this. Since the mid-90s,
Ukrainianofficials have been determined to foster better relations between the European Union
and Ukraine with eventual entry of Ukraine in to the Union (European Union, 2012), but to
complete this there are many outstanding policies Yanukovych and the current Parliament would
need to implement. Yanukovych has been shifting to more authoritarian wayswhilerebuilding
ties with Russia andthishas caused many to question the country’s true commitment to EU entry
(Pifer, 2011).Toreduce his pro-Russia image to EU officials, Yanukovychhas spoken out greatly
in speeches about his promisetopursue press freedom and economic integration with Europe"As
president, I will guarantee freedom of the media and appropriate investigation of any facts of
their oppression”(Committee to Protect Journalists, 2011). Although Yanukovych may say things
like this in his speeches, there is hesitation within the international community to believe he is
genuine. An administration that has clear examples of silencing the media faces a deep problem
when attempting to convince the world they are trying to adopt a more liberal model towards
communication policies. Because of this, this report is essential to the Ukrainian government to

3. better understand what must be done to resolve this issue before the EU stalls entry
conversations.
EU entry
Among the key priorities for Ukraine outlined in the EU Action Plan is the need to,
“Ensure respect for the freedom of the media and expression including: further improve and
enforce the legal and administrative framework for freedom of media taking into account
relevant Council of Europe recommendations and to ensure effective respect of freedom of
media, including journalists’ rights” (European Commission European Neighbourhood Policy,
2005).
Although the Ukrainian government has incorporated language about media freedom in
its Constitution, implemented media legislation and ratified various international treaties
including European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, there is still much to be done to show the government’s sincere commitment to
media freedom as well as journalists’ rights. According to the 2010 Press Freedom Index
produced by Reporters Without Borders, Ukraine ranks 131 out of 178 next to countries like Iraq
and Egypt for press freedom – a derisory showing for a country looking to join the European
Union (Reporters Without Borders, 2010).
Media situation in Ukraine
As Ukraine remains committed to joining the EU, the deteriorating media situation in
Ukraine has received the attention of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE). PACE has been tracking various reports released by organizations like Reporters
Without Bordersthat show an increase in intimidation efforts (including violent threats,
kidnappings and even death) against journalists in Ukraine, limiting the ability of the country’s
watchdogs to report on what is truly happening within its borders (including corruption within

4. the government). The decline in press freedom has specifically increased since President Viktor
Yanukovych came in to office (Reporters Without Borders, 2010). Aside from tracking the
number of reported attacks to silence the media, PACE has been following the lack of effort by
Ukraine’s government toappropriately investigate attacksand found the lack ofinvestigationsto be
completely unacceptable (Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 2007) and disrespectful to
journalists’ rights. Mats Johansson, the Standing Rapporteur for Media Freedom of PACE's
Committee on Culture, Science and Education, and Arne König, President of the European
Federation of Journalists explained,
“We are very concerned by threats to media freedom in Ukraine, which chairs the Council of Europe's
Committee of Ministers at a time of severe national political challenges. It is important for democracy that
independent media can freely report on a political crisis. Impunity for attacks on journalists and the media
undermines democracy and the rule of law. It is unacceptable that law enforcement authorities have not yet
been able to shed light on the disappearance of VasylKlymentyev one year ago. Therefore, we call on the
competent authorities in Ukraine to ensure that independent and truthful information can be disseminated
freely by the media in Ukraine (Council of Europe, 2011)
Ukraine’s blind eye to the threats against its own journalists and even the mistreatment of foreign
journalists has caused various EU leaders to continue questioning Yanukovych’s ability to
reform policies for future EU entry. During meetings in 2010, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged
President Yanukovych to address the crisis surrounding press freedom in his country. Merkel
explained, "I made clear that with regard to certain democratic areas, in particular, in the area of
press freedom and freedom of opinion, we [the EU] had certain questions" (Radio Free Europe,
2010).At a June 2011 meeting of the OSCE states, Article 19 and the International Media
Support groupsexplained to countries that there is “no justice for journalists in Ukraine, Belarus
and Russia” (International Media Support, 2011).The deaths and disappearances of journalists in
Ukraine, such as VasylKlymentyev, Igor Aleksandrov and GeorgiyGongadze were outlined in
the report to show a lack of commitment by the government to investigate and bring justice
(International Media Support, 2011).

5. Media laws in Ukraine
In Ukraine’s Constitution,Article 15 bans censorship (Government of Ukraine, 1996) and
Article 34 promotes freedom of expression,
“Everyone shall be guaranteed the right to freedom of thought and speech, and to free expression of his
views and beliefs. Everyone shall have the right to freely collect, store, use, and disseminate information by oral,
written, or other means at his discretion. The exercise of such rights may be restricted by law in the interests of
national security, territorial integrity, or public order, for the purposes of preventing disturbances or crimes,
protecting the health of the population, protecting the reputation or rights of other persons, preventing the
publication of information received confidentially, or supporting the authority and impartiality of justice
(Government of Ukraine, 1996).”
To accompany this, three pieces of legislation were passed in the early 90s to support freedom of
expression including theLaw of Ukraine “On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine”, which was
approved in December 1992 (Government of Ukraine, 2009). The Act provided the legal basis for the
operation of print media, the procedure for state registration of publications, the rights and
obligations of the journalists as well as the relations between the media and the public and other
organizations (Government of Ukraine, 2009). However, there have been plenty of issues in printed
mass media as well as in the broadcasting industry where journalists have been punished by the
government for what they report on. Ukraine’s Constitution and its accompanying media laws do not
show a commitment to protecting journalists’ rights. There is an issue within the country where
journalists must actually fear for their safety when reporting and this is completely unacceptable
when expecting EU entry. The laws do not discuss at all what the government will do in response to
threats, physical attacks and even death to journalists when their freedom of expression is eliminated,
nor does the law explain what will be done to officials – including those ruling the country – for
violating such rights. For this reason this report will identify recommendations to better protect
freedom of expression to help Ukraine comply with EU laws and standards.
The Law of Ukraine “On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine” Overview
The Law of Ukraine “On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine” was established to
guarantee the operation of printed mass media in Ukraine(Government of Ukraine, 2009) – which is

6. the law’s biggest strength. Allowing media organizations to function and report on social, economic
and political issues is important in a democratic society. According to the law, each citizen should
have the ability to freely express their opinions in printed form and that what they print shall be free
from censorship(Government of Ukraine, 2009). The law gives permission to not only Ukrainian
residents to report in printed media but also to those of foreign origin to express their opinions.
Within the Law there is greater detail as to what it means to be a journalist, how to function as one,
and how the journalist should report to his/her editorial staff for publication decisions. In addition the
Law outlines that, “editorial staff of mass media uses author's materials, works of literature, science
and art exclusively adhering to the legislation on intellectual property”(Government of Ukraine,
2009). The Law continues to discuss the right for a legal entity or natural person to refute what is
published if it is believed to be false. Finally, the law includes information on how to register a
newspaper.
Policy Analysis
The Law of Ukraine “On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine”appears
comprehensivegreat in theory but it is very vague and allows the government of Ukraine to overstep
its boundaries whenever necessary because there are no true boundaries drawn within this policy.
Although this law and the Constitution claim that everyone has a right to their own opinion and
should be able to express themselves freely through media outlets, this has not been upheld. The
Constitution, which compliments this law states, “Everyone shall have the right to freely collect,
store, use, and disseminate information by oral, written, or other means at his
discretion”(Government of Ukraine, 1996). However, numerous examples of pressure from the
government to silence journalists has shown this law does not ensure any kind of accountability on
behalf of the government to commit to such a promise.

7. Communication Model
Because PresidentYanukovych’sadministration resembles more closely the traditions of the
former USSR and now his close ally, Russia (Pifer, 2011), the approach towards the media has been
one of the Nationalist – Cultural model in the Ukraine. Such a global communication policy model is
characterized by authoritarian control of the media (Venturelli, 2012a), which is exemplified through
the vast examples discussed in this report of extensive state intervention to control what the media
writes about in print (as well as broadcasting) through intimidation against journalists.Harassment
towards the media occurs in various forms from verbal threats, to kidnappings and even death of
journalists to control content. The majority of the time, content is controlled when it exposes stories
of corruption in Ukraine’s government.Arendt argued that public space should not advance the
private interests of parties (Venturelli, 2012b) but politicians like Yanukovych do this when they
limit a journalist’s ability to disseminate important information to the public. When a journalist
is disabled from sharing information about the government including stories about government
corruption it makes it difficult for citizens to have the appropriate conversations they need to be
having in public spaces about what is impacting their country. Such actions by the government
are not done for the public good, they are done to protect themselves and do not allow citizens to
properly participate in the democracy. The law does not hold the leaders of Ukraine accountable
for when they do abuse Ukraine’s media to do this and that is a true weakness of the policy and a
weakening element of Ukrainian society. As it was decided in the case of the Observer &
Guardian Newspaper v UK, “Freedom of the press affords the public one of the best means of
discovering and forming an opinion of the ideas and attitudes of their political leaders” (Harris,
2009).
In addition, this type of communications model attempts to preserve national culture
(Venturelli, 2012a) and identity which can be exemplified through the 2004 ban in on Russian TV

8. channels and Radio channels, in order to promote “Ukrainization” (DeLong, 2011), a policy designed
to promote the Ukrainian language and other elements of Ukrainian culture. Although this policy has
begun to weaken under Yanukovych there are still elements of this practice prevalent in current times
resembling another characteristic of the Nationalist-Cultural model. Given Ukraine’s Soviet roots,
this form of authoritarian control and nationalist nature was part of the old model promoted by the
Soviets and is still being transitioned out as Ukraine works towards being a fully free and democratic
society. Controlled for most of the twentieth century by the conservative Communist system, the
media is still learning to operate in a new democratic, economic, political, ideological, and cultural
environment (Press Reference, 2011).
Weaknesses
Erik Bjerager, President of the World Editors Forum explained that “one of the roles of a
government is to foster an environment where a free press can flourish by being independent of
governmental, political or economic control” (Aid News, 2012). Unfortunately the Law of Ukraine
“On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine does not promote this type of an environment. Within
EU countries – there is an expectation that citizens should be part of public debate and that they have
the true rights to be informed. The European Union deploys a public service tradition of the liberal
market model of global communication (Venturelli, 2012a, b) where there is room for the
government to be involved with the media as a provider of a public service to the people. However,
the level of intervention and harassment by Ukraine’s administration is indicative more of control
and manipulation of the media. Within society, journalists serve as the gatekeepers to such
information – and when their ability to properly disseminate important information to the public is
limited there is a significant problem in ensuring a democratic society.
As the government owns many of the newspapers in Ukraine they have the ability to control
the information that is disseminated to the public (Government of Ukraine, 2009). The law’s biggest
weakness is handing this power to Ukraine’s government officials who have a history of corruption

9. (Lavrov, 2010) and controlling media content to protect their actions. This type of an approach does
not align with the rest of the European Union and causes problems when the models are so different.
Since the EU promotes communications polices geared towards promoting a free society where there
is an expectation that human rights and free expression are granted to all (Council of Europe, 2008),
if the Ukraine continues to function contrary to this expectation, it will be extremely difficult to
achieve compliance to EU policies and expectations and the relationship may drastically dwindle.
Implications
Since PACE learned about the various threats towards journalists in countries such as the
Ukraine, the Council of Europe passed “Resolution 1535:Threats to the lives and freedom of
expression of journalists”putting pressure on governments like the Ukraine to take press freedom
seriously (Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 2007).Within this Resolution, the Council
of Europe publically denounced the brutal attacks on Ukrainian journalists such asIhorMosiyshuck,
Sergei Yanovski and Lilia Budjurova and expressed its deep concern with the lack of investigative
measures committed to solvingsuch cases, death threats and murder cases against journalists
(Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 2007). The Resolution explained that based on the
record of attacks in neighboring countriesjournalists in Ukraine“have to work under fear for their
lives and physical safety” (Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 2007). Having journalists
feel that they must fear for their lives for doing their jobmakes the EU question whether or not
Ukraine is truly committed to developing a true democracy and respecting human rights. In addition,
other actors within the international community are also questioning Ukraine’s commitment to
democracy because of the country’s disinterest in protecting media freedom. The country’s actions
have begun ruining its reputation not only within the EU community but also globally.
Due to international pressure, 11 years after his death, the government of Ukraine responded
to the murder of GeorgiyGongadze (BBC News Europe, 2010). In addition, the government

10. established a parliamentary ad hoc commission,“to investigate censorship in the media, pressure on
freedom of speech, and obstruction of journalistic activities” (Article 19, 2010). At this time, the
Commission has been functioning at a low level (Article 19, 2010), not showing adequate
commitment by the government to resolve the problems relating to media freedom. These two
measures are not enough to show full commitment to protecting journalists within Ukraine.
Recommendations
Free and independent media is a reflection of a true democracy (Article 19, 2010) and the
Ukrainian Parliament must make decisive action to ensure this exists.This report recommends that
Ukraine musttransmute legislation to comply with European and international standards that ensures
respect for freedom of expression and diversity of opinion (Article 19, 2010). This report would
make the following recommendations to help the Government of Ukraine in meeting the demands of
the European Union:
Establish a committee of media experts, consultants and Ukrainian government policy leaders to
develop a strategic plan for transforming Ukraine’s current media legislation including the Law
of Ukraine “On Printed Mass Media (Press) to meet the demands of the EU which promotes
more liberal global communications policies.
The Law of Ukraine “On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine” should be amended to address
the following priority areas outlined by the Council of Europe in Resolution 1535:
o Under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), “Freedom of
expression and information in the media includes the right to express political opinions
and criticize the authorities and society, expose governmental mistakes, corruption and
organized crime…”(Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 2007). This report
recommends that in order to ensure journalists can act freely there must be an emphasis
in the language of the law stating the actual desire to protect the safety of journalists to

11. speak out against all matters freely; including the operations of the government and acts
of government leaders.
o To support the demands of Articles 2 and 10 of the ECHR(Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly, 2007)this report recommends the addition of language in the
law establishing an official monitoring system to investigate former/current attacks on
Ukraine’s journalists; members of NGOs and civil society should be a part of this system
to oversee fairness of investigations.
o In addition, language in the law should include the ability for authorities to be held
accountable when failing to protect the freedom of expression of journalists or when
failing to act/investigate or prosecute;
 To ensure success of such a system, Ukraine’s judges, law enforcement
authorities and police should be trained on better respecting media freedom.
Conclusion
While press freedom is guaranteed by Ukraine’s Constitution and the Law of Ukraine “On
Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine”, journalists have come under significant pressure from the
government over the past decade; including threats against their lives, kidnappings, beatings and
murder. As the country hopes to enter the European Union, policy reforms must be implemented to
address such issues as the EU and the international community’s perception of Ukraine’s
commitment to ensuring press freedom reduces.The Law of Ukraine “On Printed Mass Media (Press)
in Ukraine should be amended to include language emphasizing the safety of journalists and their
right to carry out their work without threats tohelp the government of Ukraine salvage its reputation
in the international community.

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