The following was submitted by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, which is based in New York.
Dear friends and allies of Ukraine,
Another report full of
misleading statements and factual errors aired on PBS NewsHour last
night. We urge Ukrainians and supporters of Ukraine to contact PBS
Newshour and demand an explanation as to why neither the report of July 5
nor July 6 did not make clear that #RussiaInvadedUkraine.
Furthermore, the editorial staff needs to explain how a series
purporting to document the "tensions between NATO and Russia," fails to
present the clear documentary evidence proving the existence of the
Russian military on Ukrainian, Georgian and Moldovan territories.
Part 1 of the series can be viewed here:
http://www.pbs.org/…/desire-
http://www.pbs.org/…/desire-
UCCA response to Part 1 can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/UCCA.
https://www.facebook.com/UCCA.
Part 2 of the series can be found here:
http://www.pbs.org/…/can-
http://www.pbs.org/…/can-
Contact PBS NewsHour:
Email: viewermail@newshour.org
Phone: (703)998-2138
To Whom It May Concern:
On July 5, the PBS NewsHour, the nation's longest running nightly news
broadcast, aired a report prepared by Pulitzer Center for Crisis
Reporting grantees Nick Schifrin and Zach Fannin, both well-traveled
journalists, as part of a series highlighting the "tensions between NATO
and Russia". Both PBS NewsHour and the journalists themselves refer to
this series as "Fault Lines," a geological term perhaps suggesting a
natural order, although there is nothing natural at all about Russia's
invasion of Ukraine.
After viewing the first segment of the Fault
Lines series, our office received numerous alerts as to the biased
nature of the presentation. Indeed, after viewing the segment ourselves,
we responded on behalf of the Ukrainian American community with a
letter summarizing the following inaccuracies and omissions:
No
mention of the nearly 2 million displaced persons who have fled the
areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia for their own safety, some having
been specifically targeted;
No mention that those unfortunate to
have remained under occupation are under a constant barrage of Russian
disinformation and propaganda;
No mention of the clear documentary
evidence proving the existence of the Russian military operating in the
occupied areas of Eastern Ukraine, even though the report airs that
there are "claims" made about "thousands of Russian soldiers";
Mistranslating at least one interview subject, who specifically voiced regrets when asked,"Has it been worth it?"
Furthermore, this entire segment was produced and edited to omit one
crucial word - INVASION.
Nowhere in the 11 minute report focusing on the
areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia was the word "invasion" used. For
this omission, we are demanding an explanation from PBS NewsHour
producers as to exclusion of the only possible description for the
Russian Federation not only blatantly violating the UN Charter with its
military actions in Ukraine, but also the Helsinki Final Act, the 1994
Budapest Memorandum, and at least 2 bilateral agreements between Russia
and Ukraine, not least of which was the so-called “Friendship Treaty.”
The reason we are addressing PBS NewsHour specifically, is that a
companion piece to the Newshour's report, misleadingly titled "Desire to
break free from Ukraine keeps devastated Donetsk fighting," was
published by USA Today after being produced for Public Radio
International. Although focusing on the same subject matter, USA Today
decided to focus on the horror of Russians enlisting child soldiers in
Ukraine which was documented in the PBS report, and entitled their
version of the report "Soviet-style youth squads are making a comeback
in eastern Ukraine".
Both reports by Nick Schifrin contain
misleading and factually incorrect statements, not least of which the
repeated description of Ukrainian territory militarily occupied by
Russia as not of Ukraine, even though the world has recognized this
border territory as Ukrainian such since at least 1945 when Ukraine
signed the UN Charter as one of the original member states.
In
addition to the crime of enlisting child soldiers not being called out,
nor not addressing the illegal status of a Russian soldier interviewed
on camera, the report airing on July 5 finished with Judy Woodruff
claiming that on July 6, "Nick Schifrin continues his reporting from the
other side."
The report which aired on July 6 did not, in fact,
report on the "other side" of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Beginning
with Judy Woodruff's introduction, we were told that the July 6 report
would move us "inside Ukraine". Again, this in contrast to the fact that
NO INTERNATIONAL BODY HAS RECOGNIZED RUSSIA'S MILITARY OCCUPATION OF
UKRAINE AS A CHANGE OF INTERNATIONAL BORDERS.
After focusing most
of the report on political and governmental reforms in Odesa, a city
350 miles away from Donets'k, Nick Schifrin returns to the Russian
invasion of Ukrainian territory along the eastern border, where, yet
again, the conflict is portrayed as simply Ukrainians fighting amongst
each other. Were this actually a conflict between several thousand
radicalized secessionists and what now stands as one of the largest
militaries in Europe, there would be no prolonged hostilities. Instead,
as nation after nation has attested to, Russia crossed its border with
Ukraine, bombing areas of Ukraine from the Russian side of the border,
and then deployed significant numbers of military personnel and
equipment inside Ukraine to maintain control over a small sliver of
land.
Unfortunately for our fellow Americans, this misleading series continues tonight
with a segment filmed in Estonia. If the summary listed on the website
of the Pulitzer Center is to be believed, the people of Estonia may end
up being characterized as irrationally provoking "tensions" with Russia.
Therefore, we call upon our members and fellow supporters of
Ukraine to contact PBS NewsHour and express directly their opinion of
this reporting.
Again, while I appreciate PBS Newshour airing a
segment on Russia's war on Ukraine, which is regularly ignored by US
news outlets, it is important to add relevant context the reporting and
ensure that the translating is done accurately. As a representative of
Ukrainians in America, I would welcome the opportunity to offer that
context in person, as I have many times over the past 2 years: http://bit.ly/1TeKDkO
With regards,
Andrij V. Dobriansky
Ukrainian Congress Committee of America
Ukrainian Congress Committee of America
203 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10003
New York, NY 10003
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