The new head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, (Ambassador for want of a better analogy), Jan Tombinski, seems to be doing his very best to pour oil on the somewhat choppy waters between Ukraine and the EU in efforts to smooth matters between the two sides to some degree. He recently gave a press […]
RADA passes criminalisation law regarding promotion of homosexuality
October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
By 289 votes, the RADA passed on its first reading, a bill that criminalises the promotion of homosexuality. I have written about it before in some detail. The accompanying note explaining this law when it was submitted was to combat HIV. Complete tosh of course. As the UN reports document, HIV transmission in Ukraine has […]
What weight to give the on-line debate? Freedom of Speech - Freedom House “Freedom of the Net report” and Ukrainian elections
September 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
For the first time, Ukraine has been included in the Freedom House, Freedom of the Net report. Ukraine was ranked as being “Free”. And, well why wouldn’t it be? No bloggers have been arrested, there is no political interference that is noticeable, and no Internet applications are blocked by the government. Further, the Ukrainian forums are […]
Criminalisation of defamation - Ukraine
September 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Well, much has been written in the Ukrainian press, many horrified tweets from Ukrainian journalists on twitter, (at least amongst those I follow and those that follow me), and many paragraphs have been blogged about the passing at the first reading, of the law to re-criminalise defamation (libel and slander). I briefly mentioned it a […]
In Supporting Pussy Riot - What The F**k FEMEN?
August 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
OK - A Russian court sentenced Pussy Riot to 2 years in jail yesterday for their little stunt in a Russian Orthodox Cathedral. To the very liberal thinkers, maybe that is absolutely fine. For the broadminded, maybe somewhat obnoxious but nevertheless freedom of speech and expression is fundamental, albeit somewhat distasteful in the chosen location. […]
Svoboda and the Communists release their party lists (and I complain about graffiti)
August 3, 2012 by 1 Comment
The competing political parties for the October elections in Ukraine continue to release their lists of party candidates. I have already mentioned those of the United Opposition and Party Regions and now will take a look at the far right Svoboda and the Communists. I will look at Klitschko’s UDAR and Korolevska’s Ukraine Forward in […]
The trials and tribulations of being an independent TV station in Ukraine
July 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Normally I stay away from the headline news in Ukraine, quite simply because you can read about that in other places, albeit I wouldn’t guarantee the objectivity, accuracy or unbiasedness of the reporting in those places necessarily. Like so many foundational pillars of society in Ukraine, the media here also too often sets low standards […]
Terrorism and swearing - Public morale laws?
November 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Well I am going to write briefly about this whilst drawing your attention to a few caveats. Firstly the link holding the cited story comes from a source that is not best known for corroborating its stories. The reason I am using the source is because firstly it was sent to me by one of […]