State TV viewers got mixed message

KIEV, Ukraine – Most viewers watching state-run Ukrainian television after last week’s presidential runoff heard the official declaration of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s victory. But the hearing-impaired got a radically different message.

“The results announced by the Central Election Commission are rigged, do not believe them,” Natalya Dymitruk told UT-1 viewers when asked to relay the declaration in sign language.

Dymitruk’s act of defiance highlighted cracks in the government’s attempts to control the media following the contested Nov. 21 presidential runoff. With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians pouring into the streets of Kiev to protest alleged fraud and support opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, dozens of journalists from the UT-1 and other state-run or pro-government TV stations went on strike and joined the demonstrators.

Few went as far as Dymitruk, who told hearing-impaired viewers that Yushchenko was the real winner and apologized for conveying previous official statements, saying she was “sorry for being obliged to lie … and I will not do it again.”

In an interview Tuesday with the Associated Press, Dymitruk said defying the government “was not a spontaneous move.”

Although not a journalist, Dymitruk joined more than 200 UT-1 reporters in demanding unbiased coverage of the political crisis that has unfolded since the election.

Dymitruk said Tuesday that her audience deserves better from UT-1, the only Ukrainian TV station that offers newscasts accompanied by sign language for the hearing impaired. “They have only one source of information that, in fact, presents rather biased facts,” she said.

Bias in the state-run media and government pressure on independent – and critical – journalists have been a major concern of the opposition, Western governments and election monitors throughout Ukraine’s presidential campaign.

There has also been concern about strong-arm tactics allegedly employed by government supporters.

Reporters Without Borders on Monday demanded “a rapid investigation” into the beating of Henady Rybchenkov, a reporter with Ukraina Tsentr, an opposition weekly in eastern Ukraine, a stronghold of Yanukovych.

Rybchenkov was attacked and seriously injured last week in downtown Kirovohrad, southeast of Kiev, by unidentified assailants who reportedly told him he should write in support of Yanukovych.

“This attack was clearly motivated by Rybchenkov’s journalistic work,” the group said.