anything like a story of a prominent Jewish activist being tortured to death in his
apartment, whether along with his mother or alone. The story that you would have been
able to document, but that you chose to ignore, is that Ukraine is a nation which is
ruled by Russians and Jews, and in which Ukrainians are routinely persecuted and
murdered.
And I do accuse you of having helped cause Katelnytsky's assassination.
But even though you could not have covered Katelnytsky's assassination in 1994, you
could have in 1994 avoided giving encouragement to assassins who were at that time
plotting such assassinations. Instead, you did give encouragement to Katelnytsky's
assassins by demonstrating to them that the world press can be counted upon to continue
broadcasting anti-Ukrainian calumnies even while Ukrainians were being victimized in
their own land. It is conceivable that had you not broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom,
Volodymyr Katelnytsky would be alive today. And it is all the more conceivable that had
you used the opportunity of your broadcast to defend Ukrainians against their
oppressors, Volodymyr Katelnytsky would be alive today.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Yaakov Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney,
Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace, Simon Wiesenthal.
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 630 hits since 30Jun99
Morley Safer Letter 11 30Jun99 Who murdered Vadim Boyko?
We cannot believe that his death was just pure accident; although it is reported that
8,000 people a year in the former Soviet Union die due to their television sets exploding,
we all believe that Vadim would have survived this kind of accident.
June 30, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
The conclusion that you offered in your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of
Freedom was that Ukraine is a place where Jews and Russians are oppressed by militant
Ukrainian nationalists, and where they are the targets of Ukrainian violence. The
closest that you came to substantiating this claim was to broadcast Rabbi Bleich's
allegation that an elderly Jewish couple had been attacked and robbed somewhere in
Western Ukraine. However, this allegation was devoid of substantiating detail, and my
request for specifics (both in my letter to you of 24May98, and in my letter to Rabbi
Bleich of 23May98) was answered with silence. I repeat that request to you now - please
inform me of the details of this attack, which minimally would include the time, the
place, the names of the victims, and the address where a police report is available. If
you do not have such information, please retract the allegation.
You must be aware that I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of Ukraine as well as
of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine has questioned whether such an attack on
the two elderly Jews ever took place. Levitas's doubt was first expressed in an open
letter to you, and I reminded Rabbi Bleich of it in my letter to him of 23May98, of
which you were mailed a copy. In view of I. M. Levitas's doubt, and in view of your and
Rabbi Bleich's silence in response to my request for particulars, the impression grows
daily stronger that you and Rabbi Bleich made the incident up.
The chief purpose of the present letter is to demonstrate to you yet again that your
conclusion which I summarize in my first sentence at the beginning of the present letter
is exactly backward. Ukraine is not a place where Ukrainians attack and murder, it is a
place where Ukrainians are attacked and murdered, as has been the case for the last
three hundred years, at least. Below is documented one further instance in support of
this conclusion. It is the story of Vadim Boyko, member of parliament, and popular
television investigative journalist. I would have expected that the story of Vadim
Boyko would have appealed to you, and for that reason that you might have included it in
any broadcast that you prepared about Ukraine, as his life - at least up to the final
moments - was not unlike your own:
February 23, 1992
Journalist's notebook in Ukraine
by Marta Kolomayets
Kiev Press Bureau
A colleague's tragic death
"He was a man engaged to a young Ukraine," said Volodymyr Yavorivsky, as
he bid farewell to Vadim Boyko, who died tragically on February 14, at
the age of 29.
Hundreds of mourners crowded into the third floor atrium of the
Ukrainian State Television and Radio headquarters, tearfully passing
each other on the steps Vadim so often bounded, rushing to the studios
where he recorded his popular television programs.
Now, on February 17, the mourners paid their last respects to Vadik (as
he was affectionately known), searching for a reason why such a
promising, talented life was cut short. As slow dirge-like music played
over the loudspeakers, they filed past the closed coffin, sewn up in
black cotton and laden with bunches of carnations of all colors.
At the foot of the coffin stood a black and white photo of the young
journalist and politician. An enlarged copy of the same photo,
