Kyiv daily suspends publication due to financial problems (03/07/99)

Kyiv daily suspends publication due to financial problems

Eastern Economist

KYIV - The popular daily Kievskiye Viedomosti on February 22 suspended publication due to financial problems. The newspaper, which was an outspoken opponent to the Kuchma administration, issued a statement explaining that the Kievskiye Viedomosti Publishing House closed stock company's bank account had been frozen for some time and that the situation had become untenable.

The financial problems arose largely due to a number of court cases in which the paper was sued for libel, resulting in the paper facing bills for what they termed as "unreasonably high compensation." The paper's poor financial position deteriorated markedly after it lost a court case over allegations of abuse of power on the part of Internal Affairs Minister Yuri Kravchenko.

The newspaper's employees have faced increasingly difficult working conditions and have not been paid since last November. Kievskiye Viedomosti has been dogged by controversy in recent months.

In October 1998 the Kyiv Arbitration Court ruled to evict Viedomosti's editorial staff from their building on the basis of irregularities in a 1994 rent agreement. The decision - which Editor-in-Chief Yevhen Yakunov described as the result of government pressure - forced the paper to go to a bare-bones print run of four to eight pages for a brief period.

The next major blow came when the Soyuzdruk stock company, which distributes publications through its national network of state-owned kiosks, refused to sign a contract for selling the newspaper - a hard blow to its circulation and revenues.

Kievskiye Viedomosti shareholders include Privatbank, the shipping line UkRichFlot and domestic firms Dovira and Dendi. International and domestic observers alike says they will monitor the paper's demise in what will be a crucial year for the Ukrainian media. Control of the press will be a major factor in the outcome of the October presidential elections.

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