Censorship scandal at one of Ukraine’s top news agencies

Editors at Ukraine's UNIAN news agency say they are being censored and pressured by their superiors to soften news coverage of Ukraine's political leadership, marking the latest controversy in the nations deteriorating free-speech climate since President Viktor Yanukovych took office in 2010.

Six editors at UNIAN wrote an open protest letter to the agencys top manager Vadym Osadchy, accusing him of allegedly applying pressure to censor and tone down their coverage of Ukraine's leadership and to accept paid-for stories about other Ukrainian politicians ahead of the Oct. 28 parliamentary elections.

The agency's management denies the accusations while Ihor Kolomoysky, the Ukrainian billionaire who owns the agency, did not immediately respond to emailed questions.

Osadchy said that under his supervision the agency aims for the highest journalistic standards of fair coverage and accused the protesting staff of being biased themselves.

Some employees, maintaining confidence in their right to influence the objectivity of the coverage of news, perceived the attempts to make UNIAN's information products neutral () as censorship or practice of speech freedom infringement, Osadchy told Telekritika, the media watchdog news website, in response to the allegations.

UNIAN editors wrote a joint op-ed describing in detail how the agency's managers directed political coverage. If the allegations are true, they reveal bias and selective news coverage at one of Ukrainian top news agencies.

UNIAN's new management arrived in May. Shortly after longtime chief editor Oleksandr Kharchenko was fired for the agency's poor revenue performance.

After Osadchy's appointment (as UNIAN's general manager), there was a lot of discussion about what not to write about, that there is too much critical coverage, Kharchenko said, following his firing.

In the last two years Washington-based Freedom House human rights watchdog downgraded Ukraines media freedom climate in its ranking from free to partly free. During that time, a number of other Ukrainian media have undergone management changes and, as a result, shifted from hard-hitting and balanced news coverage to more entertainment and tabloid-like stories. TVi, known for investigative journalism, has been eliminated from some cable television plans or switched to more expensive premium-subscription plans, cutting their audience.

Moreover, most of the nations news media outlets are owned by five wealthy men in or close to the government, including Kolomoysky, member of parliament Rinat Akhmetov, Victor Pinchuk, Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovsky and Economy Minister Petro Poroshenko.

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Censorship scandal at one of Ukraine’s top news agencies