Kuchma's rivals count on regional media (06/27/99)

Kuchma's rivals count on regional media

RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

KYIV - Four presidential hopefuls - Oleksander Tkachenko, Oleksander Moroz, Petro Symonenko and Yevhen Marchuk - participated in a nationwide conference of regional and local media heads in Kyiv on May 31. The June 5 issue of Region reported that, in addition to spewing out anti-government and anti-Kuchma rhetoric, all the hopefuls were seeking to curry favor with regional media in order to enlist their support in the presidential campaign.

In particular, Socialist Party Chairman Moroz told the conference: "You have not been bribed, unlike media in the capital. ... How long do we have to watch all those 'Mornings' and 'Breakfasts' [on nationwide channels]? They are so bad that they make one's heart bleed. But in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Lviv and other cities, I have watched other programs that were made in a really skilled way."

"We ourselves are to be blamed for living in an atmosphere of information terror. We have come to the point where objective information about Ukraine can be obtained only through foreign media. ...If one wants to tell the truth, one has to address Radio Liberty, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, or the BBC. ... A junta is in power [in Ukraine]. ... Ukraine's salvation is in deposing the incumbent president. Let us unite and break the information blockade," Mr. Moroz added.

Ukraine's regional media leaders adopted a statement protesting political pressure exerted on regional media by state control and monitoring bodies. "We are doing everything to ensure that the presidential elections are honest and fair. We will give the floor to all candidates who are capable, under the legislation in force, of paying for services provided by broadcasting companies," the statement added.

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