"This is not our victory, but a ceasefire"

TV presenter Savik Schuster - about the creation of the Committee for Salvation of Freedom of Speech, persecution of the 3S.TV TV channel and his hunger strike

The TV presenter, co-owner of the 3S.TV television channel Savik Shuster and a number of Ukrainian politicians and public activists, were announced at a press conference in Kyiv on the creation of the Committee for Saving Freedom in Ukraine due to the "systematic oppression of journalists and independent media."

The decisive factor was the recent news of the deprivation of the Schuster license to work in the country. The Committee for Salvation of Freedom of Word demanded that the head of state Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman and the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andrei Parubiy stop pressure on the 3S.TV television channel and allow Shuster to work in Ukraine.

The initiators of the creation of the Committee were also the head of the Odessa Regional Administration Mikhail Saakashvili , a number of parliamentarians from the anti -corruption deputy group, and public figures.

On April 25, the Kyiv Employment Center annulled to a citizen of Italy and Canada Shusteru permission to work in the country. Representatives of the Center explained this provided by the TV presenter inaccurate information and open against Savik Schuster Studios by criminal proceedings for tax evasion (about $ 83 thousand) and the underestimation of the value added tax (about $ 78.6 thousand).

On April 26, the co -owner of "3S.tv" announced a hunger strike until the moment he returned to work in Ukraine, and on April 28 the State Employment Service suspended the decision on the cancellation of the TV presenter to work until the circumstances are clarified. Savik Shuster has been working in Ukraine since 2005 and led socio-political talk shows on the TV channels "ICTV", "Inter", "Ukraine", "112", "1+1". In 2012, he received the title of Honored Journalist of Ukraine.

Savik Schuster answered questions from Radio Liberty

- Savik, you created the Committee for Salvation of Freedom of Word. Who threatens this freedom of speech now? Does this threat have a name, surname and position?

“I think everything starts with the president.” In Ukraine, everything always begins with the president. This is not very good, but it is so. And then everything is vertically. Although there is no real vertical, but constant attempts to create it simply occur before our eyes.

- There is such a version that the persecution against your studio began after you showed a fragment from an interview with Poroshenko Deutsche Welle , which asked questions about the president’s business, about his ownership of the fifth channel. This interview did not appear on the presidential website, and Poroshenko was annoyed by the journalist's questions. Is this a reason or is it speculation?

- I think that this, too, but this, of course, is not the only reason. We are just a completely independent channel-neither from the authorities or from the oligarchs, we create a new business model, joint-stock capital for Ukraine, we are trying to attract small and medium-sized businesses, and business responds. Therefore, it is clear that it is impossible to influence us in any way, it is also very difficult to try to agree on. We proceed from our professional and ethical understandings and values, so we show what we consider necessary for society. We raise all the problems that are problems of primary importance for the country. In the general context, we are very unpleasant for the authorities. But now I'm not even about us - this is not a problem only of us. We started now, but attempts to influence other channels, attempts to indicate what to say, how to show, what to do ... not only on channels, and on the press, and on the Internet, and on the radio, attempts to put pressure, influence, say, how and what. Since we are bright, this is obvious to everyone that is happening, so people rallied around us, but by and large this is the problem of the whole country, this is not only our problem.

-They call the presidential administration, as in Moscow, and they say: do not show such and such a plot? Or somehow softer?

Symptoms are enough to understand that something unworthy of the "revolution of dignity" is happening

- In our case, they no longer call, because they know that no one will answer. But in other cases, even today at a press conference in Kyiv, when we talked about this committee, politicians went on stage, said: a ban on that channel, a ban on this channel, a ban on the fifth channel, which belongs to the president. There are a lot of such examples, there is no time to list everything. It turned out that we were such a bright spot, it all suddenly took and exploded. But there were enough symptoms to us to understand that something bad, unworthy "revolution of dignity" is happening.

- I remember when you and I spoke immediately after the Maidan, you said that in Ukraine there is no limited freedom of speech. When did this situation change?

- After the presidential election, after Ilovaisk, Debaltseve, when the authorities tried to hide everything that happened there. I think it all started from that moment.

- When was it easier for a journalist to work: under Yanukovych or today?

The quality of the authorities is different, the result, unfortunately, may be the same

- With Yanukovych, it simply was not. It is very difficult to compare, because the quality of people is different. Under Yanukovych, there was an attempt to complete monopolization of power in one hand, that is, there was Yanukovych and was his son - the main oligarch of the country. Now a little more pluralistic situation, there are a lot of oligarchs, they agree among themselves. The President of Ukraine is also not a poor person, he communicates with everyone. He protects his interests, but, of course, he is looking for some compromises with them, this is the whole problem. The quality of power is different, the result, unfortunately, in my understanding may be the same.

- You said that it is like censorship under Putin when you closed your program on NTV. Is this not an exaggeration, given the brutal censorship in Russia?

- No, I did not mean that, I meant the method of struggle. The deprivation first of the work permit, and then the residence permit, by and large, is not a person - there is no problem. When I pronounce this, this does not mean execution, it means just taking a person to expel a person from the country. In Russia, in principle, they did this. When I was deprived of a work permit, I understood that the next step was to deprive the right to reside, then just at 48 hours or 24 I had to leave the country, this I meant.

- Why did you choose such a radical form of protest as an announcement of a hunger strike?

-This happened quite spontaneously, because somehow it is necessary to resist, but it is necessary to resist, of course, not forcibly. Mahatma Gandhi occurred to me. I thought: why not?

- Gandhi, not Bukovsky and Savchenko?

- No, not Bukovsky and not Savchenko.

- The ban on your work permit is suspended. Is this a complete victory in your case or not?

- I think this is a ceasefire. I do not see any victory here - this is a ceasefire. I think the authorities are now a little regroup. All that they have done so far - from all fiscal checks to deprivation of work permit - everything was done contrary to the law and all legal norms, with huge violations, not a single decision was made lawfully. Therefore, I think that now they will create a working group from different departments, put in order all documents, accusations will begin to sound more reasonably, and I think that there will be a new attack.

- There is no doubt that this whole story will be used and is already used by Kremlin propaganda against Ukraine. Does this not upset you?

I do not give an interview from the Russian mass media

- Of course, it grieves me very much. I do not give an interview to anyone from the Russian media. True, I regret, I apologize to many colleagues, professional journalists, decent people, but I really do not want to give the impression in Russia that there is better than in Ukraine or the same situation is the same - this is far from the case. Ukraine is nevertheless a country where today civil society plays an important role, it is in the process of formation, but it already plays an important role, which is impossible to talk about in Russia. Therefore, I would not compare Russia and Ukraine in no way.