Satire Case Falls Flat

True, Ukrainian Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko had to stamp his foot and order the case closed. Serhiy Rakhmanin, when reporting to the Prosecutor's Office for questioning and suddenly hearing apologies, said it is still unknown who actually considers himself damaged in terms of defamation of character after reading his play. He added that the editors are still trying to find out. "Everybody is equal before the law. When they started the case they had to have valid reasons," Mr. Rakhmanin said.

In ancient Greek and Roman drama such sudden turn of events was known as deus ex machina, the god in the machine, meaning a god introduced into a play to resolve the plot tangles (i.e., the stage machinery from which a deity's statue was lowered). One may wonder, of course, what deity actually intervened, the Procurator General or someone very high above who, after studying the case, saw it was stupid. Actually, it was the least the President could do under the circumstances, considering the embarrassing situation he had found himself in, due to his sycophants' efforts.

In its Saturday issue the Zerkalo Nedeli's chief editor Volodymyr Mostovy thanked his colleagues, particularly The Day, for solidarity and active efforts to awaken the general public to how outrageous the affair was. As a result, the bureaucrats could not quietly have their revenge on a journalist and newspaper that had "gone too far."

A very good lesson, except that one can only hope that those concerned will learn it.