Kazbek Bektursunov

Coordinator of the special projects of the Printing House "Kommersant" Kazbek Bektursunov (left) and All-Ukrainian Association "Journalists' Solidarity" President M. Zubareva, right, on the press-conference in the UNIAN agency on Friday, October 13, 2000 in Kyiv. The All-Ukrainian Association "Journalists' Solidarity" appealed to the Presidents of Ukraine - Leonid Kuchma and Russia - Vladimir Putin in connection with the last declaration of the State Television and Broadcasting Committee (STBC) of Ukraine headed by Ivan Drach concerning the Russian printed Mass Media, registered in Ukraine. In the early October the STBC declared that printed editions like "Komsomolskaya pravda in Ukraine", "Argumenty i Facty in Ukraine", "Trud-Ukraina" and others put the really Ukrainian Mass Media in condition of the unequal competition and, in fact, appear as the official cover to the illegal (non-taxed) import in Ukraine of the many-million circulation of corresponding analogues from Russia. The STBC for any reasons does not register the "enemy" Mass Media, and those ones, which were already registered must register themselves once more. "Journalists' Solidarity" considers this fact as the repressive measures against the freedom of speech. Photo by Dmitryi Gavrish/ UNIAN