Posted on 12/14/2001 2:55:32 AM PST by dhuffman@awod.com
Wednesday December 12 8:44 AM ET Journalists Armed with Rubber Bullet Guns
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday it would allow journalists reporting on politics, crime and corruption to carry guns that fire rubber bullets, in a response to a wave of attacks on reporters.
``We did this in a bid to improve the safety of journalists, some of whom are working under continual threat,'' a ministry spokesman told Reuters.
Ukraine has come under fire from the West for its patchy record on human rights and press freedom. Around 18 journalists, many of them investigative reporters, have been killed during the country's 10 years of independence from the Soviet Union.
Intimidation and beatings occur frequently and rights groups complain the mass media are being muzzled, either overtly by authorities and powerful business interests or covertly through fearful reporters exercising self-censorship.
Reporters' representatives were quoted by local media as saying the measure would put journalists in danger and was an admission the government was powerless to defend the press.
The highest-profile case, that of slain journalist Georgiy Gongadze, plunged the country into political crisis this year and turned an uncomfortable spotlight on the human rights and crime record of a country seeking integration with Europe and the West.
Gongadze, a Web site reporter critical of President Leonid Kuchma and his allies and who also investigated links between officials, business and crime, disappeared in September last year. His headless corpse was discovered two months later.
Thousands marched through the streets of the capital Kiev demanding Kuchma's resignation after an opposition politician published tapes on which a voice resembling the president's was heard ordering officials to deal with the reporter.
A former presidential bodyguard, now in exile in the United States, says he made the recordings in Kuchma's office. The president denies all involvement and says the tapes were doctored to put words into his mouth. The case remains unsolved.
The Interior Ministry has attached stringent conditions to the weapons order. Journalists must undergo medical and weapons handling tests and give police statements as to why they need a gun. Their bosses must also justify the move to authorities.
The ministry said there had been ``dozens'' of attacks on reporters this year but said few were linked to their jobs. The spokesman could not say whether any reporters had applied for gun permits.
Sorry about the post from a secondary source. I wasn't able to find this on Reuters.
If rubber bullets are good enough for protecting Gongadze then, it seems, they ought'a be good enough for Jerry Rivers. AND not offend his normally gun-grabbing sensitivities.
I never thought I would say this about leftist Geraldo.
But he is smarter that the rest of his liberal friends.
Chicagofarmer
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