President Viktor Yanukovych has said he will support journalists’ right to free expression. Yanukovych was responding a police attack on journalists at the Ekspres newspaper in the town of Lviv last week. This was the fourth such attack since Yanukovych assumed office in February.
A defamation case brought against the chief editor of Rodnoye Priyapovy, Sergei Shvedko, for doubting aspects of a 1930s famine has been squashed, creating a legal precedent. Businessman Vasily Kovalenko brought the case over an article that stated the Soviet famine — known as Holodomor— was not genocide against the Ukrainian people in particular. Kovalenko cited the constitution which outlaws Holodomor denial. But the court ruling stated Shevdko’s article “did not deny the fact of Holodomor” and was “subjective opinion”.
Ukrainian investigators say they have found skull fragments believed to be those of the journalist, Georgiy Gongadze, who was decapitated in 2000. The find came just days after the arrest of a former Ukrainian general suspected of carrying out the murder. Read more here
A former Ukrainian general suspected of carrying out the high-profile murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze has reportedly confessed to the killing. A senior police official said the former general, Oleksiy Pukach had also implicated senior political figures in the murder. Mr Gongadze’s decapitated body was found in a forest in September 2000. Read more here