[Air-l] crisis in the Ukraine

[Ulla Bunz]

I'm forwarding the below which was posted to Crtnet (the Listserve of
the National Communication Association). I'm forwarding it a) to raise
awareness of the issue, and b) as an example of how email can be a tool
for social change, activism and digital empowerment.
Ulla
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Ulla Bunz
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Rutgers University
4 Huntington Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Email: bunz at scils.rutgers.edu
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November 23, 2004, Number 8419
Communication Research and Theory Network
a service of the National Communication Association
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Monday, November 29.

Crisis in the Ukraine (Lance Strate)

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Date: Tues 11/23/04
From: Lance Strate STRATE at FORDHAM.EDU

I just received this message from a Ukrainian communication scholar
associated with the Media Ecology Institute in Lviv.

Lance Strate
Department of Communication and Media Studies
Fordham University
Bronx, NY  10458
(718) 817-4864
(718) 817-4868 (fax)
strate at fordham.edu


Hi, Lance
please pass my e-mail to all who want to know what is
going on in my country now.

Today is the first day after the second tour of our
elections. You cannot imagine what is going here right
now! I think nobody knows what can happen in the
nearest future. Almost all of my friends and relatives
didn't sleep at all last night watching TV.

We have something like information blockade on the
real facts. The only independent channel here is The
Fifth Channel, its journalists gained their right to
tell the truth by going on hunger-strike but the
president and premier tried to block it up. Many
journalists of other channels quit their jobs
because they did not want to be engaged in
falsifications and tell lies to their audience..
You cannot imagine what kind of falsification our
premier (imprisoned for two times for violent acts and
rape!) resorts to. Now we have various military troops
round Kyiv and inside it as well as in Lviv. Last
weekend the train with BTR and tanks arrived to our
city.

But the worst was during the calculation of the
voting. The regime forced people to go and vote for
their candidate, they would beat people, there were
numerous attempts to steal boxes with bulletins. The
voters organized by themselves guarding of their
election districts. Two policemen were cruelly beaten
and one killed when they tried to resist to groups of
bands organized by premier who try to become
PRESIDENT.

In Donets'k (an Eastern region where Yanukovych's
rating is the highest) more than 100% (!!!) of voters
participated in the elections.

There were attempts to steal election boxes, to burn
them or to destroy them.

Those who work in public offices were ordered to vote
for Yanukovych under the threat of dismissal and some
person on high public level were ordered to vote for
him under the threat of death.

Many students were kicked out of universities for
their participation in the pre-election activities on
the side of Yuschenko. Many journalists were beaten
and their cameras were broken just because they wanted
to be present at the elections districts. Even in Lviv
where 93% voted for Yuschenko, some people tried to
burn the boxes with bulletins and somebody put acid
into the box  which also destroyed the bulletins. All
these things were organized in the regions where
people voted mostly for Yuschenko.

I couldn't remember such things even during the period
of Soviet regime.

Revolution is about to burst out in our country. All
over Ukraine people are going on meeting and strikes
to protect their choice. The world doesn't have any
moral right to stand aside keeping silent.

This is not a conflict between two personalities, this
is a clash of two worldviews, of criminals and honest
people, of the Ukrainian nation, which has made its
choice and the ruling clique, which doesn't want to
give up the power.

Nearly to the last days we had the lack of information
about everything going on in our country in world
press. This is the kind of problem that cannot be
handled by our country single-handedly, since freedom
of speech in Ukraine leaves much to be desired.  That
is why we really lack truthful, balanced and reliable
information about what is going on in our country.
Your President says that your country is against
terrorism. And what about crime as a state policy?
Does he think it is less dangerous?

I want to ask you to pass my e-mail to all the people
in your country who can have influence on  the
situation in our country.

Hope everything would be not so terrible as it looks
now.

Nataliya Gabor.

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