Last Tuesday's crash of a Ukrainian plane in Angola, killing five Ukrainian
fliers aboard, made major news on all the private channels. UT-1, the government
one, also carried the story - in the 24th minute of its news show. Another
horrible event of the same day, a coal miner's attempted self-immolation
in Luhansk, was also pushed to the background on Ukraine's major official
television news source. Of course, President Kuchma's meeting with regional
media reps, run at the beginning, is an important development, particularly
if the President makes sensational statements (to be conveyed by journalists
to the masses all over Ukraine), concerning his spectacular achievements,
provided "they do not get in my way" and proposing to prolong this status
of nobody getting in his way. In any case, the priorities designated by
government editors in the government-controlled media can tell much about
that government's priorities in other spheres. Considering that every step
made by the President appears more newsworthy than the life of any other
citizen, and remembering that under totalitarianism power meant everything
and the man in the street nothing, our "progress" over the years of independence
is self-evident: zip, nil, and none. Who cares what they say on high: the
Council of Europe, human rights, or priority of personal interests over
those of the state? Is it surprising that securing the rights of Ukrainian
citizens abroad (includes not only Pavlo Lazarenko, but also crews of impounded
Ukrainian ships, Ukrainian girls sold into white slavery, etc.) interests
mainly the media and Ombudsman Karpachova (whose monthly pay has to be
financed by foreign embassies in Ukraine)?






