On Monday the guards of the stage in the Maidan took away self-published materials from Kyiv volunteers, who were handing them out, and burnt 12,000 copies of the newspaper printed for the money of volunteers. According to the leaders of the project, the guard was outraged by the material published in the issue – “Maidan is against the opposition.”
Den has already written about the mission of the self-published newspaper Chronicle of Current Events in the article “‘Mad’ printers instead of printing machines” (issue no. 22 of February 7. 2014). In particular, we admitted the importance of the goal of the newspaper – “guaranty the access to verified facts for Ukrainian citizens, above all residents of south-eastern regions of the country aged over 50 who don’t use the Internet.” It will be reminded that volunteer journalists of the project write on-the-spot materials about the events in Ukraine and urge their partisans to print them and put into postboxes of their neighbors. The project was a successful start. The first issue published on February 1 was distributed with a print-run of 1,117 copies. The seventh issue of February 19 was published with a print-run of 150,000 copies all over the country. All nine issues have been published with a print-run of over 300,000 copies and distributed in 200 cities of Ukraine and abroad.
“We are journalists. Our task is to describe the reality, not correct it. Maidan whistles and shouts ‘Shame on you!’ to the three opposition leaders. Maidan refuses to fulfill the agreements the opposition made with Yanukovych. Maidan applauds to Self-Defense sotnyks and Right Sector. This is the reality,” shares one of the initiators of the projects. “Maidan rejoices at Yulia Tymoshenko’s return. Politicians should not stay in jail for their political decision. But whether she has any right to ‘be the guarantor’ and moreover ‘punish everyone’ is up to the people to decide in honest and transparent elections. People in Maidan are non-stop saying good-bye to the killed fighters. At the same time, acting president Mr. Turchynov states that Maidan has achieved its goals and can disperse. At the same time, in Verkhovna Rada the MPs, half of which 1.5 months ago voted for the dictatorship laws, are chanting ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ Meanwhile, the most part of the demands of Maidan have not been fulfilled, in particular, the announcement of re-election of the Verkhovna Rada and approval of the law on lustration. We see and hear everything. And we don’t believe any word of the politicians – we will judge only by their deeds. We are sure that there are neither ‘slaves,’ nor ‘Banderites’ in our country, there are honest people who deserve to know the facts and make independent decisions. Our task is to bring to our compatriots the fact that Maidan is standing for our free life in a free country – with dignity and in prosperity.”
By the way, the publication is actively read in social media – nearly 11,000 people are subscribers to the Facebook page of Chronicle of Current Events. Correspondingly, the open letter of the editors of the newspaper about the liquidation of a part of the print-run stirred a wave of criticism against the leaders and guards of Maidan. Proof of this is at least the number of reposts – nearly 5,000 over several hours. Readers, journalists, and experts are afraid that some leaders of Maidan will start censoring the self-published newspaper, which is made and distributed by volunteers and will forbid to hand out other newspapers in Maidan.
“I can vouch for people who make The Chronicles – it is not a provocative publication or an instrument of political struggle. Burning the print-run of a newspaper which is published for the money of volunteers and which tried to critically analyze the negative reaction of Maidan to leaders of the opposition, is wrong, inappropriate, and on the whole a disgrace,” media expert Otar DOVZHENKO noted in his commentary to The Day. “I don’t know who concretely gave the order to destroy part of the print-run, but this is a negative tendency. Vice versa, I very much hope that the new authorities will help The Chronicles. That would be very useful, because they are aimed at making east and south hear west and center. As Maidan is actually not governed by anyone, there are no guaranties that The Chronicles or other newspapers won’t be burnt in the future. A sotnyk or any other field commander can decide to destroy the print-run. On the whole, participants of Maidan are not the target audience of The Chronicles, but it is very important for them to read the newspaper: these people don’t always know well what is going on in the country.”
