Posted by bbc on February 11, 2002 at 20:31:00:
In Reply to: Re: ATTENTION: BBC misrepresents Ukraine posted by rusia on February 11, 2002 at 19:31:31:
Most of the media are privately owned. This does not prevent the government and presidential administration, as well as local authorities, from trying to control media content.
While the authorities attempt to keep the media in line, Ukraine still has a significant - albeit struggling - opposition media. The Kuchma government has seen the closure of several opposition papers.
Burdened by financial problems, the regional press fails to maintain high editorial standards. The Russian press is very strong, especially in the east of the country.
In June 2001 the Ukrainian parliament adopted a resolution recognising the "unsatisfactory situation in the field of regulating mass media activities, freedom of speech and the public's right to free access to information".
Several journalists investigating high-profile crimes have died in mysterious circumstances. Journalist Heorhiy Honhadze disappeared in September 2000, his body was found and eventually identified a year later.
The Ukrainian authorities have been uncooperative in investigating the Honhadze case, a parliamentary committee said in 2001.
In July 2001, the director of a radio station in Slovyansk, Donetsk Region, died after having been attacked in his office by unknown assailants using baseball bats.
There have been a number of other cases of journalists being attacked. As a result, the interior minister issued a decree at the end of 2001 allowing journalists to possess and use firearms.
In November 2001 Ukrainian media mogul Vadym Rabynovych announced his intention to launch a bilingual information TV company, NTV-Ukraine, in January 2002.
The new channel considers itself "the junior partner" of the Russian NTV channel, Mr Rabynovych said.
: Write an e-mail to an uneducated BBC management
: with the pointers to Ukraine's constititutution
: article translated in English where is stated
: that Ukraine has one official language.
: : According to the BBC web page Ukraine now has not one, but two official languages, Ukrainian and Russian. How can we expect objective and unbiased news about Ukraine, if they can't even get this simple information right?
: : http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/european_languages/countries/ukraine.shtml
: : Besides, BBC also prefers using Russian-style transliterations of Ukrainian city names on their map.