Pavel Sheremet

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Grigorievich and the family name is Sheremet.
Pavel Sheremet

Sheremet in 2014
Born Pavel Grigorievich Sheremet
(1971-11-28)28 November 1971
Minsk, Belarus (USSR)
Died 20 July 2016(2016-07-20) (aged 44)
Kyiv, Ukraine
Nationality Soviet
Belarusian (deprived)
Russian (naturalized)
Occupation Journalist
Awards

CPJ International Press Freedom Award (1998)

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Prize for Journalism and Democracy (2001)

Pavel Grigorievich Sheremet (Russian: Павел Григорьевич Шеремет, Belarusian: Павел Рыгоравіч Шарамет, 28 November 1971 – 20 July 2016) was a Belarusian-born Russian journalist who was imprisoned by the government of Belarus in 1997, sparking an international incident between Belarus and Russia. The New York Times has described him as "known for his crusading reports about political abuses in Belarus"[1] and "a thorn in the side of Lukashenko's autocratic government".[2] He was awarded the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award in 1999 and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 2002.

Pavel Sheremet died in Kyiv on 20 July 2016 in a car explosion.[3][4] The Ukraine Prosecutor's Office have said the explosion was caused by a bomb and labelled the death of Sheremet a murder.[5]

Biography

Early career

From 1994 to April 1995, Sheremet was the anchor and producer of Prospekt, a weekly news and analysis program on Belarus state television. The program was banned by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko one week before a referendum to increase the president's powers.[6]

Sheremet then became editor-in-chief of the Belarusian newspaper Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta. The same year, he also began working for the Russian public television company ORT, and was named its Minsk bureau chief in 1996.[6] Because of increasing control of Belarusian media by the Lukashenko government, Russian television was often the primary resource of Belarusian citizens for alternative news.[6]

Border-crossing incident

On 22 July 1997, Sheremet, along with an ORT cameraman and their drivers, filmed himself crossing illegally from Belarus to Lithuania and back again to show the ease with which smugglers could cross the border. Lukashenko's government was in the midst of an anti-smuggling initiative, and had only recently ordered new troops to the borders. Sheremet and his companions were detained by a border patrol after jumping a fence to film unguarded areas.[6] Sheremet and one crew member, Dmitry Zavadsky, were later charged with illegal border crossing, "exceeding their professional rights as journalists", and participating in a conspiracy.[6]

Russian authorities protested the arrests, which led to what BBC News called a "public row" between the two nations.[7] Yeltsin canceled a planned trip for Lukashenko to visit Moscow after he was already on his way; his plane was denied entry into Russian airspace.[2][8] On 18 January 1998, Sheremet and Zavadsky were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and 18 months' imprisonment, respectively,[8] but given suspended sentences and a "nominal" fine of $15 USD.[9]

Further journalistic career

In November 1997, Sheremet was one of the signatories of Charter Ninety-Seven, a pro-democracy manifesto demanding an end to "the infringement of basic human rights and liberties by the administration of President Alexander Lukashenko". Sheremet also acted as the movement's spokesman.[10]

In 1999, he conducted a rare television interview with Naina Yeltsina, which The New York Times criticized as "indulgent" and "[doing] its best to present Mrs. Yeltsin in a sympathetic light"; Sheremet's station ORT was largely controlled by oligarch Boris A. Berezovsky, a Yeltsin ally.[1]

Sheremet's partner and former co-defendant Dmitry Zavadsky disappeared on 7 July 2000, failing to arrive for a meeting at the Minsk airport with Sheremet. Sheremet accused the Belarusian authorities of having arranged his forced disappearance in retaliation for his reporting,[11] later alleging that he had been informed of government "death squads" by former Belarusian General Prosecutor Oleg Bazhelko.[12] Zavadsky was declared legally dead in 2003.[13]

Since 2012 Sheremet worked in the Internet newspaper "Ukrainian Truth", where launched a blog of a journalist. Since 2015 has been the leading Ukrainian radio "Radio "Visti", first on weekends in the program "Show of Pavel Sheremet»,[14] and then on weekdays in the "Morning of Pavel Sheremet».[15]

Sheremet resigned from the Public Television of Russia (OTR) in July 2014, saying that journalists who didn't follow the "style of Kremlin propaganda" while covering the ongoing crisis in Ukraine were "hounded".[16]

He was a critic of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, of Russian President Vladimir Putin and, as of lately, of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as well as a personal friend of assassinated Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.[5][17][18] He publicly criticized the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.[5] In his last blog post, on 17 July 2016, he worried that militias could attempt a coup in Ukraine, and accused some of their members of being above the law and having alliances with crime syndicates.[19]

Personal life

Sheremet was married with two children, a son and a daughter.[5]

Death

Sheremet died in a car explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 20 July 2016. Several reports refer to the explosion as a car bomb, and Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko described it as a murder.[3][20][21][22] He was in a red Subaru XV[20] that belonged to his law wife [23][24]& partner, the former editor-in-chief of Ukrayinska Pravda, Olena Prytula. She was not in the car at the time.[25] Reports claim that according to Novaya Gazeta, Sheremet and Prytula had recently told friends they were under surveillance.[5] Immediately following his death, an official from Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs said "We cannot rule out the possible participation of the Russian special services in this crime".[5]

Sheremet was buried in Minsk on 23 July 2016.[26] The day before a procession through Kiev was held for him attended by friends, colleagues, lawmakers, and government officials—among them President Petro Poroshenko.[26]

Reaction

The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called Sheremet's death a "terrible tragedy".[27] The Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman called the death of Sheremet "terrible news" in a statement on Facebook.[20]

Awards and recognition

In 1995, the Belarus PEN Center gave Sheremet its Adamovich Prize, naming him the best television reporter in Belarus.[6]

In November 1998, Sheremet was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists,[6] "an annual recognition of courageous journalism".[28] Because Sheremet was denied permission to travel to New York City to attend the scheduled ceremony with fellow winners Ruth Simon, Goenawan Mohamad, Gustavo Gorriti, and Grémah Boucar, the CPJ held a special ceremony in Minsk on 8 December to present his award.[29]

On 22 April 2002, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly announced Sheremet as the winner of its 2002 Prize for Journalism and Democracy, which he would share with Austrian television journalist Friedrich Orter, cited for his human rights reporting in the Balkans and Afghanistan. The award cited the pair as having "promoted OSCE principles on human rights, democracy and the unimpeded flow of information". The two split a $20,000 USD prize.[30]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pavel Sheremet.

References

  1. 1 2 Michael R. Gordon (27 September 1999). "Under Fire, Yeltsin Is Defended By His Wife". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  2. 1 2 Michael R. Gordon (9 October 1997). "Reporter for Russian TV Freed By Belarus, Easing Tensions". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  3. 1 2 Kramer, Andrew E. (20 July 2016). "Pavel Sheremet, Journalist in Ukraine, Is Killed in Car Bombing". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  4. ↑ "Новости NEWSru.com :: В Киеве в результате взрыва автомобиля погиб известный журналист Павел Шеремет". NEWSru. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Journalist and Putin critic Pavel Sheremet killed by car bomb". theaustralian.com.au. The Australian. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "1998 Press Freedom Awards – Sheremet". Committee to Protect Journalists. 1998. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  7. ↑ "Trial of Russian journalists in Belarus postponed". BBC News. 18 December 1997. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  8. 1 2 "Two Belarussian journalists sentenced for border violations". BBC News. 28 January 1998. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "Journalists Lose in Court". The New York Times. 25 March 1998. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  10. ↑ "Belarus government accused of human rights abuses". BBC News. 11 November 1997. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "Cameraman disappears in Belarus". 8 July 2000. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  12. ↑ "Belarus protests spotlight disappeared". BBC News. 7 September 2001. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  13. ↑ Суд признал погибшим оператора ОРТ Дмитрия Завадского [Court Rules Dmitry Zavadsky Legally Dead]. Vesti (in Russian). 3 December 2003. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  14. ↑ «Show of Pavel Sheremet", 20 September 2015
  15. ↑ «Morning of Pavel Sheremet" on Radio "Visti" last broadcast, 19 July 2016
  16. ↑ "TV Journalist Quits In Protest At Kremlin's Policies On Ukraine". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 17 July 2014.
  17. ↑ Ukraine or a Walk-about Field? blog post at Ukrayinska Pravda, 13 July 2015 (in Russian)
  18. ↑ Drugstore and Presidents by Pavel Sheremet at his personal Belarussian Partizan website, 17 April 2016 (in Russian)
  19. ↑ Азов, ответственность и добробаты ["Azov", responsibility and militia] (in Russian). 19 July 2016.
  20. 1 2 3 Luhn, Alec (20 July 2016). "Car bomb kills pioneering journalist Pavel Sheremet in Kiev". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  21. ↑ "Ukrainian-Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet killed in Kyiv". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  22. ↑ Sheftalovich, Zoya. "Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet killed in Kyiv". politico.eu. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  23. ↑ Media said that Sheremet and his common-law wife complained about surveillance
  24. ↑ Russian-Ukrainian journalist Pavel Sheremet killed in his car in Kiev. Video - See more at: http://www.pravdareport.com
  25. ↑ Daryna Krasnolutska; Aliaksandr Kudrytski (20 July 2016). "Car Bomb Kills Prominent Journalist in Ukraine's Capital". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  26. 1 2 Slain Journalist Sheremet To Be Buried In Minsk, Radio Free Europe (23 July 2016)
  27. ↑ "Kiev car bomb kills top Belarusian journalist Sheremet". bbc.com. BBC News. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  28. ↑ "CPJ International Press Freedom Awards 2011". Committee to Protect Journalists. 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  29. ↑ "CPJ Presents Award to Pavel Sheremet in Belarus". International Freedom of Expression Exchange. 15 December 1998. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  30. ↑ "OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 2002 goes to Friedrich Orter and Pavel Sheremet". Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 22 April 2002. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
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