Editors of local and district newspapers in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast are anxious about the pressure upon the freedom of speech by local auhorities.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, this is said in “Freedom of speech cannot be stopped!” statement of editors of local and district newspapers of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, the co-founders of which are district councils and district state administrations.
The statement was issued in the town of Kosovo yesterday, at a seminar, organized by the Academy of the Ukrainian Press, the Conrad Adenauer Fund in Ukraine and “Open Space” Carpathian media-center.
The statement reads: “After a rough interfering of the officialdom into the editorial policy of newspapers “Kolomityski Visnyk”, “Zlahoda”, “Dzvony Pidhirya”, they initiated a censorship in “Hutsulskiy Kray” weekly. They forbade the editor to publish an address of lawmakers, which, as if, humiliates their dignity and business reputation, and undermines the authority of power agencies. In such a way they violated the Constitution and laws of Ukraine on mass media”.
On 23 May “Hutsulskiy Kray” weekly editor Petro Havuka went on a hunger strike, protesting against the pressure upon his freedom of speech. Seminar participants supported the principal position of P.Havuka, and called on to give a legal assessment to the activities of local officials.
As of today, P.Havuka stopped his hunger strike, which lasted for three days.
