BRAMA, Mar 6, 2004, 9:00 am ET
The following is an exerpt of a press briefing by U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2004/30194.htm
Daily Press Briefing
Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
March 5, 2004
[...]
QUESTION: Adam, as a post-script to a discussion we had in here yesterday about Ukraine and broadcasting, a broadcast executive, who apparently was considering carrying these U.S. broadcasts died in a car crash -- I believe it was yesterday -- that his associates say might not have been accidental.
Is there anything -- is the U.S. looking into this or concerned about it?
MR. ERELI: Yes. The issue of the deaths of journalists in Ukraine under suspicious circumstances, as well as the repeated silencing of free media in Ukraine is a subject of serious and ongoing concern for the Government of the United States. We made a statement in that regard yesterday at the top of the briefing.
The latest incident, which you referred to, is the death of an independent radio station chief, Heorhii Chechek, who died in an automobile accident a few days ago. We still don't know all the facts related to the death, and I would say it's a little early to speculate on what were the full circumstances.
However, as I said earlier, there is -- clearly, there is reason for concern based on the history of murder and disappearances of journalists in the Ukraine. I would also note that a number of prominent political figures in Ukraine, including the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament's Committee on the Media, Mykola Tomenko, have called for a full investigation into this matter and the United States Government supports this call.
This is not the first time we've called for an investigation into the serious deaths of journalists. We -- another journalist, investigative journalist was murdered in 2000, Heorhy Gongadze; television station director Ihor Alexandrov was murdered in 2001; and editor Volodymyr Karachevtsev was killed in 2003, as well as others.
In addition to these deaths, I would note that the Government of Ukraine is stifling the free press. Yesterday, as we reported, Radio Kontynent, which was broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty transmissions, was -- had their transmitter confiscated. The station that had been broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty before that was Radio Dovira, and it stopped its broadcasts on February 17th, when new management assumed control of the station.
I would also note that in addition to harassment, intimidation and violence against individual journalists, there have also been persistent reports that the presidential administration issues press directives on how to cover news events.
Finally, our Ambassador in Kiev, John Herbst, immediately raised our concerns about the moves against Radio Kontynent with the Foreign Minister and we delivered the same message to the Ukrainian Ambassador in Washington.
QUESTION: Do you know the name -- regarding the man who died in the car crash a couple of days ago, do you have the name of the radio station he worked for?
MR. ERELI: Let me check.
QUESTION: Thanks.
MR. ERELI: Do you know, Tom? Okay.
QUESTION: It's on the wire.
QUESTION: Adam, do you think you can trust --
MR. ERELI: Yeah, check your wire.
QUESTION: Yeah. Do you think you can trust the Ukrainian Government to do the investigations into these cases? Obviously, there's a long string of them. I haven't heard any, you know, conclusions that there was any -- there were any misdeeds. But you've got to be -- you've got to be skeptical of them. How can you trust the government to do the investigation?
MR. ERELI: Well, I'd say let's take things step by step. An investigation is a necessary first step. And it would be a, I think, a welcome -- it would be a welcome set of circumstances if we had an investigation to evaluate the fairness of. We don't even have that yet.
QUESTION: Well, it's been four years since Gongadze disappeared, ended up dead. What are you -- have you had any satisfaction on that case?
MR. ERELI: No.
QUESTION: I mean, are you still pushing three years later and --
MR. ERELI: Yes, yes. It is an -- it is a subject of continuing concern and ongoing engagement with the Government of Ukraine.
QUESTION: It's outrageous, isn't it?
MR. ERELI: I'm not going to editorialize.
QUESTION: Thank you.
[...]
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