Media News - Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Ukrainian journalists protest as leader hails media freedom

A dozen Ukrainian journalists stood up and raised anti-censorship banners when President Viktor Yanukovich hailed his country's march to media freedom at the World Newspaper Congress in Kiev on Monday. "Ukraine has made its way, without exaggeration, from total censorship to an open society," Yanukovich told the conference as his security guards ripped banners saying "Stop censorship" from protesters' hands. Yanukovich did not react to the silent protest. Ukrainian opposition and Western rights watchdogs have accused Yanukovich of cracking down on media freedom after coming to power in the former Soviet republic in early 2010. In July, three months before the October parliamentary election, tax police raided the office of TVi, a television station often critical of the government. Although a tax evasion case against TVi's chief executive has since been dropped, the station says local cable companies are either dropping it or moving it to more expensive packages, cutting the station's viewer base. Yanukovich said the alleged lack of media freedom in his country was due to ignorance and misinformation. (Reuters)

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