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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Will Creation of Chetverta Vlada Split Ukrainian Journalists?

13 July, 1999 - 00:00

By Anatoly LEMYSH, The Day
Chetverta Vlada (Fourth Estate) is the name given to a new public association
of mass media workers, whose founding meeting was held last Saturday in
Kyiv. The delegates represented over 1200 Ukrainian mass media outlets:
newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. Academician Anatoly Moskalenko,
director of the Institute of Journalism was elected chairman of the board.

According to its charter, the All-Ukrainian Chetverta Vlada Association
is a nonprofit public organization designed to promote the freedom of expression,
the development of democratic processes in Ukraine, and to safeguard journalists'
rights. The meeting produced a statement envisioning the participation
of association members in the elaboration of a national information policy
and support for positive steps by the current regime aimed at the democratization
of society. Two steering committees were established at the meeting: one
will deal with setting up a trade union for mass media workers, and the
other with creating a political party based on the Chetverta Vlada Association.
As Academician Moskalenko said, the association is not alternative to or
splitting from the Union of Ukrainian Journalists.

However, the Union's chairperson Ihor Lubchenko told The Day
that the creation of such an organization will lead precisely to a split
among journalists, because its tasks are in no way different from those
of the existing Union. "If I had sat quietly, not advocating the freedom
of expression and press in Ukraine or putting forward the idea of opposition
by the press to any regime, this organization would probably not have come
into being," said Mr. Lubchenko.

 

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