QR code in Lviv
This code [a matrix barcode, readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones; it consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background; the information encoded can be text, URL or other data] is accessible at 100 tourist facilities in and around Lviv. Another 100 access links will be added soon. The QR code is easy and quick to use, by both mobile phones and PC owners. You can switch web links and add data to your phone’s memory/hard disk. “The QR code will make the tourists particularly comfortable in Lviv,” says Oksana Sydor, chairperson, Department for Tourism, Lviv City Council. Ihor Lylio, the historian in charge of QR code database, adds “from now on any guest to Lviv won’t need a guide, he/she will be able to find the required itinerary by using the mobile phone.” In view of the tourist influx specifics, Lviv’s QR code numbers answer in Ukrainian, English, Polish, and Russian. This project was initiated by the Lviv Tourist Movement and financed by local businessmen. Lviv City Council supports this project on the communications level and in terms of QR code authorizations.
By Tetiana KOZYRIEVA, The Day, Lviv
Ukrainians are positive to vote
IMK informs that the polls carried out by the Ilko Kucherov Democratic Initiatives Foundation, as part of the Ukrainian NGO’s Opora democratic monitoring program, point to 47 percent respondents stating they will surely vote during the local council election campaign, and that another 29 percent are inclined do so. The head of Opora’s board Olha Aivazovska says these people are mostly motivated by their public duty: 43 percent of the respondents, followed by 37 percent who are afraid their ballots will be cast by someone else, falsified, so they will have to vote. Most of the respondents don’t believe their candidates’ promises — only two percent of the respondents believe them. Twenty percent respondents believe that most of these promises will be fulfilled, with the majority (42 percent) stating that few if any will ever be implemented. Twenty-seven percent say that nothing will come of the promises.
European Parliament delays resolution on Ukraine
The European Parliament postponed considering the resolution on Ukraine until the next session, which is to be held on November 10-11 in Brussels. As it is known, six groups of the European Parliament put forth their draft resolutions, after which four groups managed to agree upon a compromise version of the document. The draft, in particular, presupposed expressing concern on the growing number of charges and trustworthy reports saying that democratic freedoms and rights, such as the freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of mass media, have been endangered in the recent months. The European Parliament planned to appeal that the Ukrainian government investigate all reports on the violation of rights and freedoms, and also examine the role of the Security Service of Ukraine in interfering with the democratic process. The draft resolution also contained an appeal to the Ukrainian government to carry out all necessary measures to protect the freedom of mass media and pluralism, and also to abstain from any attempts to control, directly or indirectly, the national media. At this, the document points out the urgent necessity to reform the legislation in the media sphere.
