President Leonid Kuchma, greeting on November 16 award- winning television, radio, and telecommunications personalities, called on the media to show “healthy objectivity and act in compliance with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine,” rather than be guided by personal or party interests when covering the election campaign, Interfax-Ukraine reports. Mr. Kuchma again confirmed his view that “the state and the president need a politically-structured and responsible parliament which would serve the interests of society, reflect public sentiments, and put emphasis on the latter in its actions.” He stressed that Verkhovna Rada and local government elections, to be held in 2002, are “a crucial exam for Ukrainian society, journalists, as well as all media and telecommunications employees.”
Simultaneously, according to Mr. Kuchma, even today, long before the election campaign has started, “there are speculations about fixed elections... Moreover, some have already begun collecting signatures for a petition to international organizations about the falsification of the election results,” he said.
Ukraine’s president also said it was necessary to form a concept of government information policies. The head of state pointed out that under our conditions of market-oriented transformations, the rapid growth in the number of television and radio companies coincided with the formative period of the related government agencies. Yet, to quote Mr. Kuchma, “It is a proven fact that this sphere still requires legal and technical modernization.” In addition, he noted, the issue of non-governmental television and radio broadcasting has so far been confined to empty declarations.
