Pravda Ukrainy regains license (01/24/99)

Pravda Ukrainy regains license

Eastern Economist

KYIV - The Justice Ministry on January 5 renewed the license of the newspaper Pravda Ukrainy, although there was no room for controversial Editor-in-Chief Oleksander Horobets.

Publication of the paper was first suspended on January 28, 1998, at the request of Information Minister Zynovii Kulyk on the charge that its registration documents did not correspond to legislation. The move caused a storm of protest in the Verkhovna Rada, as it was argued that the Information Ministry had overstepped its authority in ordering the paper's closure.

To complicate matters, the paper was closely linked to the opposition Hromada faction, whose leader Pavlo Lazarenko immediately accused the government of trying to silence criticism in the run-up to last March's parliamentary elections.

Pravda Ukrainy's new editor-in-chief, Olha Pronina, said the first issue of the paper is planned for January 19. Initially, the paper's print run will be around 40,000. Before the 1998 closure, the presses were churning out up to 500,000 copies per edition, many of which were distributed free of charge, financed by the Hromada faction. Ms. Pronina also said that the newspaper has broken off all relations with the Hromada Party.

She also said that former Editor Horobets had submitted his resignation of his own free will at the request of the newspaper's journalists. Mr. Horobets is now in detention, accused of raping one of his secretaries. He has been held by authorities since his arrest on September 30, 1998.

Ms. Pronina promised that the paper will return to its socio-political centrist traditions, and will defend its independent and objective position. Pravda Ukrainy is one of Ukraine's oldest newspapers, having celebrated its 60th birthday weeks before its suspension last year.

Pravda Ukrainy was originally the mouthpiece for the Komsomol, the youth arm of the Communist Party. After Ukraine proclaimed independence it severed ties with the Communist Party and developed a tradition of defending perceived corruption and anti-democratic activities, particularly within the Cabinet of Ministers and the president's office.

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