Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter
Issue 11 Benjamin
N. Cardozo School of Law October 15, 1994
Signs of the Times
Crimea
A struggle for control over local television and
radio took place in mid-September when Crimean president Yury Meshkov issued
decrees dissolving the Crimean parliament, calling for a new constitution
and taking control over the media. The decrees were made on September
11 in response to the parliament’s adoption of a law a week earlier stripping
Meshkov of his executive powers and calling for the formation of a collective
“head of state,” to be made up of parliamentary leaders. (Meshkov
was elected in January on a pro-Russian platform and worked with Crimean
deputies to adopt a constitution that many in Kiev denounced as furthering
the separation of Crimea from Ukraine. However, he fell out of favor
with the deputies when he appointed Russians from Moscow rather than Crimean
Russians to key cabinet posts.)
According to Valery Astakhov, President of the Crimean
Broadcasting Company, supporters of the president disconnected certain
cable and FM broadcasts on September 11, and the television and radio building
was placed under the guard of the president’s personal security forces.
In response to the president’s actions Crimean deputies, who met the same
day in the Crimean procuracy building after being shut out of the parliament
building, adopted a measure calling for protection of the normal functioning
of the media. However, local police refused to enforce the measure,
and several attempts made that day by the deputies to gain control of the
television building were unsuccessful (although one deputy, Mikhail Bakharev,
was able to penetrate the television building on the night of September
11 to broadcast an appeal to the Crimean people calling on them to defy
Meshkov’s actions.)
On September 12, in spite of orders issued by the president
not to allow anyone to enter the television building, the president’s forces
abandoned their positions peacefully when confronted by nearly 100 cossacks
who supported the parliament. By the evening of the 12th, the president’s
security guards had been replaced by those of the parliament and Astakhov
said that full programming had resumed, including frequent news bulletins
on the events highlighting parliamentary views. Although Astakhov
asserted that presidential and parliamentary supporters had equal access
to television and radio, some observers noted a pro-parliamentary bias
in coverage of the crisis.
Tajikistan
Widespread violence against journalists and government
repression continue to have a chilling effect on the media in Tajikistan,
according to Holly Burkhalter of Human Rights Watch. At least four
journalists have been killed in 1994 under uncertain circumstances.
Most recently, on August 18, Davlatali Rahmonov, Director of Programming
for Tajik Television and one of the most prominent commentators in the
country, was assassinated as he was leaving his home. Repression
of journalists by the Tajik government is also rampant. On August
8, for instance, armed forces from the Ministry of Security entered and
searched the homes of two journalists suspected of distributing the independent
newspaper Charoghi Ruz, published in Moscow. No charges were filed,
but both were detained for several days and were reportedly beaten and
mistreated during detention. In addition, the government continues
to detain without trial the former chairman of the Tajikistan State Committee
on Television and Radio and three television journalists, all of whom have
been held since January 1993. They have been accused of treason and
of attempting to overthrow the government. However, there is no indication
that a trial is upcoming.
The absence of press freedom in Tajikistan is also reflected
by the fact that of the six major newspapers in the country, five are government-run
and the sixth receives almost all of its funding from the government.
Regional newspapers are also government-run. Because of this extensive
government control, virtually no criticism of the government appears in
these publications. This lack of diversity in the media is particular
disturbing in light of the upcoming presidential election, scheduled to
be held on November 6, 1994. The lack of a free press, together with
a continuing government ban on opposition political parties, provides little
opportunity for a meaningful democratic election.
Melissa Dawson
Chechnya
As the fighting continues between the Dudayev government
and opposition forces, Dudayev has intensified his efforts to suppress
coverage by Russian journalists of the situation in Chechnya. On
August 11, Dudayev ordered a halt to all television transmissions broadcast
from Russia. On September 2, his government ordered all Russian journalists
out of the republic. The official statement ordering Russian journalists
out of Chechnya gave them 24 hours to leave the republic and said that
the safety of those who remained could not be guaranteed. The government
justified the order by pointing to the “obvious bias” of Russian media
reports concerning Chechnya. (Russia openly supports the opposition
forces led by Umar Avturkhanov, who are fighting to overthrow Dudayev).
President Yeltsin’s chief of staff, Sergei Filatov, criticized the expulsion
of Russian journalists from Chechnya, saying “every dictatorship seeks
first of all to do away with objective coverage of its actions. But
history teaches us that one cannot hide anything from the people.”
Turkish Broadcasting
Turkey’s influence in Central Asia will soon increase,
as its first telecommunications satellite, TURKSAT IB, begins broadcasting
Turkish television in the republics of Kirgizia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The satellite, which was launched in August,
will also provide telephone links between Turkey and the Central Asian
republics.
Mongolia Prepares New Media Law
In recent months, media law has emerged as the central
political issue between the formerly communist Mongolian People’s Revolutionary
Party (MPRP) and its liberal opposition.
The current media law battle began in April 1994 when
several oppositionists called a hunger strike in the main square of Ulaanbaatar.
Their protests focused on governmental corruption and press freedom.
Negotiations between the government and the hunger strikers went on for
several days, with the assistance of the President as mediator. After
several tense days, the parties announced an agreement under whose terms
the President would submit a new media law protecting press freedom to
parliament at the upcoming Spring session of Parliament. The MPRP’s
Secretary signed the agreement, although he noted that some of the specific
language regarding the content of the proposed law was in his view unnecessary.
The initial drafts have outlined an omnibus law, containing
provisions related to freedom of the press along with provisions on government
information policy and the rights of public access. There were explicit
proscriptions against government censorship and against restrictions on
media ownership. The law also contains libel provisions, and has
judicially enforceable provisions requiring published “corrections” of
false reports. Another section mandates the prompt publication of
all government regulations and laws.
The drafts have also provided for the creation of an
independent Broadcast Council to regulate the broadcast media. Controversy
over how this council will be constituted is certain to be a focal point
for parliamentary debates. Other points that may prove controversial
in the conservative parliament include the limited powers of media licensing
agencies, and provisions prohibiting government monopoly control of broadcast
transmissions.
The draft as finally presented to parliament is likely
to be a liberal one, informed by careful consideration of media laws in
foreign democracies. German and American foundations have been involved
in the development of media law, and a number of foreign lawyers and media
experts have provided input.
Debate over a new media law occurs against a background
in which the print media, as elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, has
undergone significant liberalization since the end of the one-party state.
Restrictions on newspaper ownership were lifted after 1990, and each of
the new opposition parties started its own publication. Broadcast
media, which plays an especially important role given Mongolia’s nomadic
and isolated population, has remained under the control of the MPRP.
This has contributed to the party’s dominance of democratic elections in
the countryside, where they have prevailed in parliamentary elections in
1990 and 1992.
After the first election, the MPRP formed a coalition
government which included prominent oppositionists in key policy positions.
For the next two years, far-reaching economic and political reforms were
introduced, culminating in the adoption of a democratic constitution in
early 1992. The constitution included important provisions for freedoms
of speech and the press (article 16.16) and the right to information (article
16.17).
The most important publications are the official organ
of the parliament, Ardyn Erkh (People’s Right), the Government Gazette,
and the MPRP’s newspaper Unen (Truth), which is closely modelled after
the Soviet Pravda. Other newspapers have suffered from severe shortages
of newsprint. The MPRP’s Unen reportedly benefitted from gifts of
newsprint from the Chinese Communist Party.
Tom Ginsburg
University of California, Boalt Hall
Newspaper Changes
Vladislav Fronin resigned on 6 October as chief
editor of the leading proreform daily Komsomolskaya pravda, a post he had
held since 1988, and as chairman of the Komsomolskaya Pravda joint-stock
company, according to a report published in Komsomolskaya pravda on the
following day. Valerii Simonov, hitherto Fronin’s deputy, was elected
chief editor, while Vladimir Sungorkin replaced Fronin as company chairman.
Fronin is working on the establishment of a Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing
house.
On 5 October Rossiikaya gazeta published the text of
a presidential directive transferring Rossiiskie vest from the government—a
change requested by the newspaper’s editorial staff—tot he President’s
Administration. Rossisskie vesti was founded in 1990 by the Russian
Supreme Soviet, then chaired by Yeltsin. Soon after the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the appointment of the reformist government of
Egor Gaidar in December 1991, it was reregistered as a government newspaper.
(Rossiiskaya gazeta continued as the organ of the Parliament until the
latter was dissolved by Yeltsin’s decree of 21 September 1993.) When
Viktor Chernomyrdin took over the leadership of the government in March,
1993, the staff of Rossiiskie vesti remained loyal to the Gaidar team,
finding it difficult to support the policies of the new prime minister.—Julia
Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.