Sign Language interpreter on Ukraine TV does a very public act of revolting

Silent revolt began battle

From: International Herald Tribune - Nov 29, 2004

By Steven Lee Myers The New York Times
Monday, November 29, 2004

KIEV The most striking, and potentially significant, public rebellion against President Leonid Kuchma and his chosen successor in the contested election of last Sunday began silently.
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Last Thursday morning Natalia Dimitruk, an interpreter for the deaf on the Ukraine's official state UT-1 television, disregarded the anchor's report on Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich's "victory" and, in her small inset on the screen, began to sign something else.
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"The results announced by the Central Electoral Commission are rigged," she said in the sign language used in the former Soviet states. "Do not believe them."
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She went on to declare that Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition leader, was the country's new president. "I am very disappointed by the fact that I had to interpret lies," she went on. "I will not do it any more. I do not know if you will see me again."
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Dimitruk's act of defiance - one that, in an interview on Sunday, she described as an agonizing choice - became part of a growing revolt by a source of Kuchma's political power as important as any other: state television.
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In Ukraine, as in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, state ownership or control over the media, especially television, exerts immense control over political debate.
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It shores up public attitudes, not only about the state but also about the opposition. The state's manipulation of coverage was among the reasons that observers from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe called the vote last Sunday fundamentally unfair.
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But in the tumultuous week since the run-off between Yanukovich and Yushchenko ended in accusations of fraud, Kuchma's control over television has showed signs of cracking, raising questions about whether his government can maintain public support behind Yanukovich's election.
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More than 200 journalists at UT-1 went on strike Thursday to demand the right to present an objective account of the extraordinary events that have unfolded since the vote, forcing the channel to broadcast a feed from another network before capitulating. Dimitruk walked out and joined them, protesting coverage that was skewed on behalf on Yanukovich's campaign.
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Journalists at One Plus One, a private station but one that stuck closely to Kuchma's point of view, also rebelled. After its news editor resigned, the channel's director, Oleksander Rodnyansky, appeared on air and delivered a stunning admission of bias on Kuchma's behalf.
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"We understand our responsibility for the biased news that the channel has so far been broadcasting under pressure and on orders from various political forces," he said, adding that the station would now guarantee "full and impartial" coverage of the events roiling Ukraine.
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Since then, the two channels have begun to show what until last week seemed unthinkable: the massive protests in Kiev that have paralyzed the capital, as well as Yushchenko himself.
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"The most important thing is we can show what is happening in Kiev," said Maksim Drabok, a correspondent on UT-1 who led the one-day strike by journalists that prompted station directors to allow coverage of both sides.
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"Look what's happening on the street," he said in an interview. "The people are peaceful. There's no aggression. They only want to defend their rights."
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In the country's eastern half, he added, the protests have until now been portrayed on state television as illegal agitation by representatives of the opposition and the West. Objective coverage was necessary, he said, "so people would realize it is not a coup."
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Drabok, 25, described the uprising by state journalists as a watershed in Ukraine's freedom of speech history, though he admits a sense of shame because he, like others, had worked under state control.