HOME   DISINFORMATION   PRESS   PEOPLE   PUTIN   KUCHMA
Committee to Protect Journalists   03-May-1999   Leonid Kuchma's police state press
Kuchma runs roughshod over any expression of opposition.
The information below comes from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), whose home page may be accessed by clicking on this link, http://www.cpj.org, or on the CPJ logo below:
External link to CPJ


The CPJ's 1999 list of the Top Ten Enemies of the Press is as follows, with the most ruthless enemies closest to the top, and two that are of particular interest to the Ukrainian Archive in bold:

  1. Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic.
  2. China's President Jiang Zemin.
  3. Cuba's President Fidel Castro.
  4. Democratic Republic of Congo's Laurent Kabila.
  5. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
  6. Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma.
  7. Tunisia's President Zine Adbine.
  8. Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
  9. Peru's President Alberto K. Fujimori.
  10. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.

Of the above list, I reproduce below the more detailed information provided by the CPJ only for number six, Ukraine's Leonid Kuchma, and for number 10, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.  CPJ's elaboration of all ten top enemies can be accessed by clicking on the CPJ Enemies of the Press logo below.  I add further comments on these CPJ materials at the bottom of the present page.

External link to CPJ's Top Ten Enemies of the Press
10 Enemies of the Press Named by CPJ on World Press Freedom Day

New York, N.Y., May 3, 1999 � The leaders of Yugoslavia, China, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia head the list of the top 10 Enemies of the Press, named today by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).  Singled out for their unrelenting and often brutal suppression of the press as documented by CPJ, they were identified on World Press Freedom Day today, May 3.

Yugoslavia's president, Slobodan Milosevic, was named the press' worst enemy. Also cited were Jiang Zemin of China, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, and Zine Abdine Ben Ali of Tunisa. Also in CPJ's annual ranking: Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, Alberto K. Fujimori of Peru, Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine, and Honsi Mubarak of Egypt.

"These 10 individuals have been disastrous for independent journalism," said Ann K.Cooper, CPJ's executive director.  "A free press informs, but their regimes have knowingly acted to suppress information through countless violations against journalists, including censorship, imprisonment, physical attack, and even murder."
Leonid Kuchma
Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma

Using tax and libel laws as instruments of his hostility to journalists, Kuchma runs roughshod over any expression of opposition.  His tacit acceptance of violence against the press has encouraged bombings of newspaper offices, assaults on reporters and editors, and a general climate of fear and self-censorship.  His tax policies force print and broadcast outlets without foreign support to seek financial aid from businesses and politicians who then extort favorable publicity.  Crushing fines forced three newspapers to shut down in recent months.

Hosni Mubarak
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak

A siege of jailings under the provisions of the Mubarak-approved press law and the censorship and closure of newspapers marked a sharp deterioration in the climate for press freedom in his one-man 18-year rule.  In 1998 CPJ documented the first cases of journalists imprisoned in Egypt for libel, including two for reporting on profiteering by the family of a government official.  Dozens more face imprisonment on pending libel charges.  Government censorship of publications registered abroad elicited this endorsement from Mubarak: "Any newspaper published from outside Egypt can be banned if it does not abide by Egyptian social values and seeks to stir up sectarian rift."

Comments on the Above

Leonid Kuchma's presidency was bought by George Soros.  Leonid Kuchma had the Ukrainian presidency purchased for him by George Soros.

A George Soros democracy comes with a police state press.  Among George Soros's leading motives for his activities in Ukraine � he claims � is to promote democracy.  However, either George Soros is ignorant of the fact that in the absence of a free press, democracy becomes a sham, or else he doesn't really want a democracy, he wants control.  That a George Soros democracy comes with a police state press is an incongruity that needs to be more widely noted and commented upon.  As George Soros has bought and paid for Leonid Kuchma, and for members of the Kuchma administration, and for various advisers to the Ukrainian government, and as George Soros spends tens of millions of dollars annually in his attempt to democratize Ukraine, it is a mystery of the first magnitude that his efforts have failed to accomplish the sine qua non of a democracy � a free press.  If George Soros were serious about promoting democracy in Ukraine, if the United States were aiming for something higher than to turn Ukraine into just another US-backed dictatorship with a police state press, then they would demand � for starters � that Leonid Kuchma bring back to life the three newspapers that he has strangled and left for dead, namely Pravda Ukrainy, Vseukrainskiye Vedomosti, and Polityka.  That's what Ukraine's well-wishers would demand that Leonid Kuchma do just for starters.

Why has the United States imposed a dictatorship with a police state press upon Egypt?  The case of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and his "one-man 18-year rule" is instructive because the United States is particularly influential in Egypt, with Egypt being the second-largest recipient of US aid, after Israel of course.  The reason why Egypt receives so much aid is obvious � it is payment to Egyptian leaders to avoid holding Israel accountable for its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.  Thus, the full cost of maintaining the United States colonial outpost masquerading as a country which is Israel must include not only the funds allocated to supporting Israel itself, but as well the funds allocated to buying off Egyptian leaders to sell out the Palestinians.  The United States will not allow Egypt to become democratic or to have a free press because democracies are harder to predict and control than dictatorships, so that an Egypt that was democratic and had a free press could not be counted upon to continue acquiescing to the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.  The economic and intellectual stagnation that inevitably results from dictatorship and totalitarian control over the flow of information is simply the contribution that the Egyptian people are forced to make toward the goal of deferring the day that the colonial outpost which is Israel is finally abandoned.

Ukraine is four ranks worse than Egypt.  It is instructive also to read the violations of press freedom which the CPJ attributes to Egypt, and to reflect that the CPJ considers Ukraine to be four ranks worse than Egypt.  Egypt is a country where, for example, two journalists have been imprisoned "for reporting on profiteering by the family of a government official," and yet the CPJ does not consider Egypt to be as bad as Ukraine.  The CPJ also ranks Ukraine worse than Tunisia, Malaysia, and Peru, whose outrages against the press can also be read on the CPJ web site, and which outrages may leave some readers amazed that the CPJ considers the Ukrainian press even more suppressed.  Thank you, George Soros, for giving Ukraine a president who has been able to place Ukraine in a position of such high distinction.

Egypt is not the only instance of the United States imposing a dictatorship with a police state press.  What has been said of Egypt above can be said of many other states as well � to limit ourselves to countries mentioned on the CPJ web site, there are also Jordan and Saudi Arabia.  These also are under the influence of the United States, are also not democratic, and also do not enjoy a free press.  Visitors to the CPJ web site will find that Jordan made it into the Top Ten Enemies of the Press list in 1998, and Saudi Arabia made it in 1996.

Ukraine, beware!  Thus from no more than a brief visit to the CPJ site, we are able to observe that four states over which the United States wields overwhelming influence � namely Ukraine, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia � are so lacking in a free press as to have made it into the CPJ's top ten.  We must conclude that it is occasionally � and perhaps even typically � in America's interests to turn its client states into dictatorships marked by an egregious suppression of the press.  It might follow, then, that if Ukraine wanted to do better for itself than to become another Egypt or Jordan or Saudi Arabia, then it must break free of the choke hold that has been put on it by the United States.

The George Soros stooge who went on to become Ukraine's capo de tutti capi must not be reelected.  In October of this year, presidential elections will take place in Ukraine.  As usual, a team of international observers will descend upon Ukraine's polling centers to monitor the fairness of the balloting.  Perhaps we can look forward to seeing former US President Jimmy Carter among these observers, who with his moral authority will legitimize the outcome of the process as democratic.  Perhaps others of equal stature will join him in verifying that the Ukrainian balloting has been by the book.  However, in the absence of a free press � such international monitors do not appear to realize � balloting becomes nothing more than a measure of how completely a people deprived of information, and flooded with disinformation, can be duped � and that is pretty completely.  Therefore, whatever can be done to unfetter Ukraine's press between now and October must be done.  Nothing can be more urgent.  The amount of energy that will be expended toward accomplishing this goal starting at this late date is most likely to not be enough.  The fate of Ukraine hinges upon the emancipation of its press.  Who Ukraine's friends are, and who its enemies, will be measured over the next few months by whether they fight to free Ukraine's press or acquiesce to its suppression.  And it goes without saying that if Leonid Kuchma succeeds in getting himself reelected, which with his control over the press is not implausible, then Ukraine, which during Kuchma's first term has been knocked to its knees, will in Kuchma's second term be administered the coup de grâce.  If Ukraine is to entertain the slightest hope of survival, Leonid Kuchma must be defeated in the upcoming elections, and his Dnipropetrovske mafia disbanded and sent packing from Kyiv, at least in those cases where prosecution has been unable to jail them.
HOME   DISINFORMATION   PRESS   PEOPLE   PUTIN   KUCHMA