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Borys Kosarev: Modernist Kharkiv, 1915-1931 at The Ukrainian Museum thru May 2, 2012
Posted by Wasyl Gorbachuk on May 05, 2000 at 00:05:24:
The problem of Ukraine is that some its current government officials are busy with inventing ways of rather wasting than earning money.
Under lack of the budget, the expected result of such inventions is higher demand for non-Ukrainian production, poverty, corruption. Did foreign competitors pay for it to those officials as usual?
New state agency to monitor InternetBy Peter ByrnePost Staff Writer
President Leonid Kuchma's recent decree ordering the
creation of a new agency to guard against unauthorized
disclosure of confidential state information may be an
attempt by the government to control the dissemination of
information on the Internet, observers say.
The decree, signed in mid-April, set up the Department
of Special Communications Systems and Defense of Information
under the auspices of the State Security Service (SBU) and
ordered it to draft the agency's charter and submit it for
government approval by May 10.
The presidential order required that all agencies and
enterprises that process, transmit, gather or store
confidential state information comply with instructions of
the new security body.
SBU chief Leonid Derkach said April 26 that one of the
new department's primary functions would be to monitor and
safeguard confidential state information circulated over theInternet.
"It is common practice for security services in all
countries to monitor electronic communications," Derkach
said, adding that his agents will take the "necessary
measures" as soon as they detect violations.
The new project came on the heels of a series of reports
in Western media on Ukraine's alleged misuse of
International Monetary Fund aid, which Derkach had said was
triggered by unauthorized disclosure of secret information.
At a March 24 press conference, Derkach said that a
confidential parliamentary report on the Ukrainian National
Bank's operations with its reserves, which described the
alleged aid misuse scheme, became available to Western media
after it was posted in the Internet by a local news agency.
The latest presidential decree was the government's
second attempt in the past six months to monitor circulation
of information on the Internet.
Last fall, parliament overwhelmingly rejected a
government bill that would have required Internet providers
to purchase and install - at their own expense - special
equipment that would monitor information traffic.
The bill was voted down after Internet companies
complained that the measure would effectively allow the SBU
access to all information exchanged over the Internet inUkraine.
Observers also expressed worry that such control would
further limit Ukrainian media's ability to expressindependent views.
"We don't want to see Ukraine's information space
Belarussified," said lawmaker Oleksandr Yemets, referring to
widespread suppression of freedom of speech by government
authorities in neighboring Belarus.
While international media watchdogs describe the state
of freedom of speech in Ukraine as being on a par with that
in Belarus, local analysts say the Internet has remained
virtually the only reliable medium, which allows
dissemination of opinions on economic and political
developments in Ukraine that differ from the officialviewpoint.
An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Ukrainians presently
have access to the Internet, and that number is expected to
increase four-fold by the end of 2000. Presently, the .ua
Internet domain includes more than 7,500 Web sites, with
Kyiv accounting for about 35 percent of all Internet
services provided in Ukraine.
Ukrainian legislation regarding media and communications
does not mention the Internet. But analysts say that
Kuchma's latest decree would effectively allow the
government to create regulations for the Internet without
risking a new failure during their debate in parliament.
International organizations, which keep tabs on Internet
development worldwide, have noted that restrictions on
Internet access tend to occur in countries, whose
governments have a poor record on freedom of speech.
Last year, the Paris-based international press freedom
group, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) issued a report
naming 45 nations as Enemies of the Internet for the
limitations on Internet access imposed by their governments.
"In line with their repressive approach toward other
media, some governments do not allow their citizens to
provide or use the Internet freely," read the report.
RSF in particular mentioned attempts by Russian
authorities last year to impose control over electronic
communications in the country. The proposed measure, which
would have allowed the Russian Federal Security Service to
secretly hook up to Internet users under the pretext of
carrying out unspecified "operational measures" was voteddown by parliament.