Turning the pages back... September 16, 2000 (09/16/01)

Turning the pages back...

September 16, 2000

One year has passed since The Ukrainian Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau first reported on the September 16 disappearance and feared murder of journalist Heorhii Gongadze. To date, no credible official explanation has been given for the journalist's slaying. Lesia Gongadze, Mr. Gongadze's mother on September 11 of this year, appealed to Procurator-General Mykhailo Potebenko to officially issue charges against President Leonid Kuchma, presidential administration chief Volodymyr Lytvyn, and former Interior Affairs Minister Yurii Kravchenko.

The following excerpt is the first news story on the disappearance of Mr. Gongadze in 2000.

* * *

Heorhii Gongadze, a Ukrainian journalist considered to be among the country's brightest and most aggressive, disappeared without a trace on September 16 after leaving his Kyiv office for a planned rendezvous with his family.

The matter has gained national and international attention mostly because Mr. Gongadze was one of the most popular and provocative political journalists among the capital city's correspondents, a journalist who did not fear to overtly and brazingly taunt and criticize the Ukrainian government for limiting press freedoms and intimidating the media.

On September 20 the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced it was handling the matter as a murder investigation, which has quelled hope that Mr. Gongadze, a popular figure among his colleagues, might still be alive. Earlier the investigation had been limited to a missing person search.

Source: "Kyiv journalist feared murdered," The Ukrainian Weekly, September 24, 2000, Vol. LXVIII, No. 39.

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