ELECTION WATCH: Newspaper says Kuchma's rivals face no information blockade (10/17/99)

ELECTION WATCH

Newspaper says Kuchma's rivals face no information blockade

RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine report

PRAGUE - The newspaper Fakty, which is taking a pro-Kuchma stance in the presidential election campaign, argued on September 11 that the incumbent president's rivals face no information "blockade," despite their regular suggestions to the contrary.

According to Fakty, each of Ukraine's 25 oblasts has the "press organs of any given political party" and the newspapers that "share views of any given presidential candidate."

Fakty cited the following specifics:

Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz is supported by the nationwide Socialist Party press organ Tovarysh (58,300 copies) and the regional newspapers Vybor (Zaporizhia; 26,600 copies) and Prykarpatska Pravda (Ivano-Frankivsk; 3,000). Mr. Moroz is also "surprisingly often favored with good words" by Narodnaya Ssprava (Volyn Oblast; 7,100), Rivnenskyi Dialog (Rivne Oblast; 3,000), and R.I.O. (Zakarpattia Oblast).

Communist Party Chairman Petro Symonenko is supported by the nationwide Communist Party Press organ Komunist (193,000), Spravedlivost (Volyn Oblast; 5,200), Novaya Volna and Kommunist Donbassa (both in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), Sevastopolskaya Pravda (Crimea), Leninskaya Pravda (Sumy) and Krasnoye Znamia (Kharkiv Oblast).

Oleksander Tkachenko is backed by the nationwide Silski Visti (576,500) and Holos Ukrainy, the Parliament's newspaper, as well as Kherson-Kurier (Kherson; 8,500), Selyanska Pravda (6,000), Antenna (Cherkasy; 20,000), Vysokyi Zamok (Lviv).

According to Fakty, Yevhen Marchuk has enlisted the widest regional press support among all the candidates. His candidacy is upheld by Svobodnaya Mysl (Volyn Oblast), Nashe Vremia (Zaporizhia; 35,000), Elita (Mykolaiv Oblast; 50,000), Dialog (Kharkiv Oblast; 50,000), Salon (Donetsk; 40,000), Sribna Zemlia (Uzhhorod), XXI Vek (Luhansk), Za Vilnu Ukrainu (Lviv; 12,000), Informatsionnyi Biulleten" (Poltava; 10,000) and Chas (Chernivtsi).

The total weekly circulation of the above-mentioned newspapers reaches 4 million, Fakty noted.

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