Democracy Watch, 2011 - Issue 1

Historical quote of the week:

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." – Cicero, 55 BC

People First Comment: How little has changed…

Democracy Watch – Editor’s Report on 2010.

Democracy Watch (DW) has become a real success story with leading international politicians and journalists commenting that every country should have one. 19 issues were published weekly in 2010. Such has been the uptake that at a recent conference on Ukraine in London in November copies were specifically printed for the delegates however almost every delegate already had the current issue even though few were then on the mailing list.
Clearly DW has struck a chord with the Ukrainian public, Ukrainian politicians and civil servants and international Ukraine watchers and is now seen as a reliable non-political overview of the reality of Ukraine today. DW will be expanded in 2011 to include input and comment from other democracy organisations.
Our monitoring research indicates that in 2010 the People First Foundation had 1,108 pages of information on Ukraine published on 983 websites around the world, in 8 languages and had 28 articles published in the national and international media. Assuming a readership of only 5% of this material our total monthly audience is estimated at 2.9 million readers per month, with almost a million readers living in Ukraine.
People First Foundation would like to thank the editors of all the newspapers and websites that have reprinted our articles and publications and especially to thank ‘Kyiv Post’ for their support in reprinting all 19 issues. We would also like to thank all our readers who have passed DW on to their friends and colleagues for their personal contribution to democracy in Ukraine.

Political persecution spreads in Ukraine.

In coming to power the new President has given rise to political persecution in Ukraine. According to the Prosecutor General, 8 ministers and vice-ministers from the government of Yulia Tymoshenko have been arrested on suspicion of damaging the national interest to the tune of US$2.5 billion. The former prime-minister herself is subject to repeated questionings at the Prosecutor-General's office. However, representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Presidential Administration claim that the government has begun a serious battle against corruption involving both former and current government officials and it should not be perceived as political repression. As yet they have failed to provide evidence of their impartiality.
In response, both the USA and the EU have demonstrated increasing concern over political pressure and persecution in Ukraine. In particular, Thomas O. Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, recently said that the selective administration of justice should be recognised as unacceptable by any democratic society. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America deplored the actions of the Ukrainian government directly. The members of the Committee illustrated concerns that the authorities arrest political opponents and suppress journalists through fear thereby restricting civil liberties and the right of assembly, further blemishing the national identity of the Ukrainian people.
Not long ago the Czech Republic granted political asylum to Bordan Danilishyn – former minister of economy in Ukraine. This should constitute a major wake-up call for Kyiv as Brussels obviously holds a strong negative attitude towards political pressure of the current regime on the opposition.
In Ukraine, Danilishyn was accused of causing a national loss totalling 2 million Hryvna. President Yanukovych has received a clear political signal from USA and the EU, stating that further practice of political persecution is unacceptable.

People First Comment: The government may claim that the current clamp down is a bid to combat corruption but in reality it is nothing more than selective pressure on political opponents. Corruption is endemic to the whole governmental and financial system of the nation but the scale is now truly frightening.
According to the international financial watchdog ‘Global Financial Integrity’, between 2000 and 2008 US$86 billion was illegally transferred out of Ukraine through the Ukrainian banking system to offshore tax havens. Ukraine ranks as the 3rd worst in Europe (17th in the world) behind Russia and Poland with an annual drain of $10.75 billion a year or $41.35 million a working day, costing the national budget, in lost VAT alone, some $2.15 billion. This annual loss is almost equal to the stand-by credit recently negotiated by the government as a loan from the IMF which the Ukrainian tax payer will be paying off for decades. When you add in lost profit and salary taxes the national loss is truly staggering.
If the government of Ukraine is serious about combating corruption then they should start with the banking system… unfortunately most of the banks in Ukraine are owned by members of parliament so there is little likelihood of any action that will damage ‘the club’. If the government had a list of real priorities they would set up a banking regulator with real powers, they would work with the international banking system to identify the primary culprits and bring them to justice and they would establish legislation to ensure such blatant criminality could not flourish again. Only then would the world take their claims of fighting corruption seriously.

The West shows its concern over the situation in Ukraine.

Despite the rather quiet nature of Viktor Yanukovych’s recent visits to Brussels and Washington, which mainly expressed political mutual understanding, today the dialogue between Ukrainian authorities on one side and the EU and USA on the other is becoming increasingly difficult.
Freedom House has presented a report according to which, following the results of last year, Ukraine is among the countries with the most dramatically reduced democratic freedoms.
Jose Manuel, high representative of the EU delegation in Kyiv, expressed his unease in connection with the democratisation of Ukraine, specifically in the context of violations at the latest local elections and blatant infringements of recognised rights on freedom of the press. He mentioned that the EU truly hopes that Ukraine will tackle all the issues concerning inhibitors to the development of democracy such that they do not jeopardise the future negotiation process between Ukraine and the EU regarding the association agreement and free trade area.
Alongside, Stefan Fule European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy illustrated that from his perspective the actions and policies of the current regime are indicative of a rollback of democracy in Ukraine. The aforementioned statements of the USA and EU representatives demonstrate that the West will not sit silently and observe attacks on democracy in Ukraine.

People First Comment: The Authorities of Ukraine are about to reach a watershed. Relations with Russia are at best cool following Prime Minister Putin’s disastrous last visit. President Yanukovich may feel that he has a better relationship with President Medvedev but it is highly unlikely that he will be able to play one off against the other even in an election year. Relations with Europe and the USA grow cooler by the day as the government tests their resolve on key issues of freedom and human rights… even the Chinese are beginning to see the wisdom of positive change.
The lack of desire to really understand democratic principles underpins governmental policy but this has to change. If the authorities continue to goad the west with Soviet-style political repression, then the west will retaliate firstly with travel bans on key figures and their families, followed by an escalating programme including the freezing of bank accounts, the banning of airlines and shipping, restrictions on banking, the imposition of penalty tariffs on exports, expulsion from the WTO and even the stimulation of regime change from within… the list is endless but the first to be hit will be the ruling and financial elite.

British court to review a case of freedom of speech in Ukraine.

Despite the efforts of some Ukrainian businessmen to restrain the freedom of speech in Ukraine through the British courts, the official representatives of USA and EU have reminded the Ukrainian authorities of the fact that further pressure on democracy is unacceptable.
While possessing the most stringent legislation on the protection of reputation against libel, British courts are currently being utilised to constrain freedom of speech in Ukraine. December of last year saw a highly successful businessman, renowned for his operations in Ukraine and close to the government, file a case at a London court against Kyiv Post. Kyiv Post risks being subjected to a complex and highly expensive series of court proceedings with potentially extreme penalties all due to an article about corruption in gas trade sector. This brings up the question: Why do major Ukrainian businessmen choose to protect their reputation in British rather than Ukrainian courts, preventing Ukrainian society from accessing information regarding conflicts between the media on one side, and business supported by the government on the other?
However, before lodging complaints about libel by Ukrainian mass media, our oligarchs should note that they might soon lose the privilege of privacy. In the near future it may be mandatory to carry out public discussions about credibility of information published in the media, including on the territory of Ukraine. The Deputy Prime Minister of Great Britain Nick Clegg has stated that this spring a new draft of libel law will be submitted to Parliament. It will provide citizens with broader options for the protection of their reputation and the right to publish the results of well-reasoned and valid investigation. In the meantime, let us hope that the British legislature will choose to rule on the side of civil liberty, over and above the egos of business heavyweights.

People First Comment: Libel tourism has become a real problem in Great Britain as the often unscrupulous seek to profit from legislation designed primarily to protect the English from libellous Internet attacks. If a person is genuinely libelled then it is their right to seek redress through the courts and genuine libel is almost indefensible. The English Courts take a particularly dim view of libellous journalistic attack resulting in the majority of publishers seeking an out-of-court settlement which illustrates why British journalists go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that their facts are correct. However the English Courts also take a similarly dim view of those who seek to abuse the English system or use it purely for financial gain.
Herein lies one of the anomalies of the English legal system as there can be a distinction between the letter of the law and justice. In English law, particularly in civil matters such as libel, it is possible for a Judge to find for the plaintiff but to judge that whilst a libel in the strict sense of the law has been committed, no real damage has been done to the plaintiff and therefore award nominal damages that can be as low as one pound. Similarly if the Judge thinks the case is spurious, he can order that the plaintiff pays a proportion of the costs which can run into millions of pounds.
So Ukrainian plaintiffs be warned, this law is currently under judicial review and could be changed as early as the late spring making it very difficult to convert wounded pride into financial reward through the English Courts. Perhaps a better solution for all would be to bring the Ukrainian libel laws into the 21st century and to air such disputes where they originated.

Democracy Watch is the weekly monitor of the People First Foundation and serves to raise public awareness of how government and parliamentary action is impacting upon Ukrainian democracy and democratic due process. The information is copyright free and may be reproduced but we ask that any comments are reproduced in full and with reference to the People First Foundation.

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This release was published on openPR.