POLITICS 

Let us leave aside the inevitable political background which has relevance to the fact that it was not just a politician who took part in the Internet conference, but a major presidential candidate.

5:30 p.m. Marchuk took his place at the computer.

It seems strange that he is without aides. I had expected there would be at least five, prompting, clarifying, and giving a quick word when needed

5:31 p.m. Ukraine Online personnel reports the statistics of the conference: more than one question is received per second. I wonder whether their channels will sustain the load. In any case, their faces betray no signs of panic. The questions and answers can be seen on the monitor in the next room, and they are also read out for those in attendance.

5:40 p.m. A question arrives: "Internet-interviews have one problem. There are cases when an interviewee is substituted for by a totally different person. I don't ask your confirmation, but many people still don't believe it." Here it is: our native certainty developed over many years that Ukrainian politicians fool the people without reason and are incapable of communicating directly without a prepared text written on a piece of paper. And the skeptics will not be convinced by the presence of the journalists here (which, incidentally, calls forth an issue of people's trust in the mass media). The only thing really convincing is a digital camera installed in the room, which every 20 seconds transmits Marchuk's image to all computers participating in the conference.

6:10 p.m. In the forty minutes of his Internet-conference Boris Yeltsin answered 14 questions, while Marchuk in the same time handled almost 40. He is operating in a rather rigid question-answer mode, without breaks and still having some time for brief comments. He looks as fresh as before the conference.

6:25 p.m. Marchuk answers questions from the US in English and from Germany in German. This makes me jealous, and right was my teacher of English who used to hammer it into my empty head: "Learn English!"

6:29 p.m. Because of my eternal journalistic mistrust (what if the questions are still being filtered somewhere or, for that matter, have been prepared in advance?) I decided to check it personally. I typed and sent my question from a computer in the next room. Later, returning to the general room, I had a pleasure to see it appear on Marchuk's monitor, and Marchuk answering it.

6:35 p.m. I am beginning to lose my reason from exhaustion. I am showing all the signs: I drink one cup of coffee after another and have an irresistible desire to smoke. According to the previously announced plan, Marchuk is supposed to attend some event at the Teachers' House after the conference. Keep away from me! May the Editor-In-Chief pardon me, but I am not going there! After all, it's Friday, it's night, and the end of the week.

6:45 p.m. That's it! In an hour and 45 minutes Yevhen Marchuk has answered 90 questions. 22,000 people were directly following the conference, and a total of 50,000 from the whole world looked on.
And I still have to manage to fulfill my editorial task: have a brief interview with Marchuk. I have some vague suspicion: what if he sends me (after more than an hour and a half of communing with the Internet citizens) off to his web-page. The number of questions and answers there is enough to write ten articles. Thank God, Marchuk agrees to a blitz-interview and, judging by the lit up faces of my colleagues, I understand that I was not the only one with such a task.

The Day: "Mr. Marchuk, in the very first answer at the Internet conference you said that Internet is the most formidable enemy not only to censorship, but to self-censorship as well. To what extent do you think our society has managed to overcome censorship?"

Yevhen MARCHUK: "To my mind, it has still not been overcome. All of us, I mean both politicians and the journalists (perhaps, to a somewhat smaller degree) need some time to get rid of the inertia of the past. The freedom of speech is a serious trial both for the politicians and the journalists."

By Dmytro SKRIABIN, The Day

PS: Yevhen Marchuk is reproached for appearing on television too seldom. Probably, such reproaches are irrelevant, for none of the station broadcast even a brief report on his Internet conference. This is a pity. If you had seen him in a live telecast you would have probably agreed with my main impression: Yevhen Marchuk has refuted the notion that Ukrainian politicians are provincial. Incidentally, the journalists attending the conference were given a copy of a floppy disk with the conference recorded. The Day will later publish the most interesting passages of this dialogue.