In Poltava region, rayon council takes office away from newspaper «Orzhytski visti»

The office of communal newspaper «Orzhytski visti» in Poltava region is being taken away by local authorities.

On December 11, session of Orzhytska rayon council adopted a resulution to transfer it from the newspaper to the balance of the council itself. The staff of the newspaper informed about it the National Trade Union of Journalists of Ukraine.

The reason for such resolution might be bad awareness about the content of the Law adopted by the Parliament "On reformation of state and communal printed mass media". The local council decided to "protect" the office from "future privatization", at that the chief editor was not allowed to speak, his report could not be heard because of the yells produced by council members.

According to first secretary of the National Trade Union of Journalists Serhiy Tomylenko, such cases are not uncommon on national level. Head of State commission of TV and Radio Oleh Nalyvaiko also mentioned, commenting this case, that local authorities lack understanding of laws, and under guise of "protecting mass media" perform underhanded "grey privatization" of the communal media outlets' property. He said that the staff of media outlets should resist this practice by making such cases public.