Ukrainian blogger Olena Bilozerska's User Winner prize in the Bobs 2013 Best Blog Ukrainian nomination has been revoked, writes [ru] Mustafa Nayyem, the Ukrainian member of the Bobs 2013 jury, on his Facebook page, linking [ru] to the official statement [uk] posted on the Bobs 2013 website. The scandal (more on it in this GV text) seems far from being over in Ukraine, however, as many netizens are displeased with the decision. Nayyem's Facebook announcement has generated over 150 comments so far, many of them critical of the contest organizers in general and Nayyem in particular. In one of the few English-language comments in that thread, Andreas Umland, a Kyiv-based German political scientist, writes:
Latest posts by Veronica Khokhlova
21 May 2013
69th Anniversary of Crimean Tatar Deportations: Memory and Politics in Crimea
On May 18, some 30,000 people gathered at a rally in Crimea's capital Simferopol to honor the memory of the victims of the 1944 Crimean Tatar deportations and to demand the immediate resignation of Anatoly Mogilev, the chairman of Crimea's Council of Ministers.
16 May 2013
13 May 2013
Ukraine's Freedom Party Crusades Against Gay Pride Parade
On May 25, Ukraine will once again attempt to hold its first gay pride parade ever. The previous attempt failed a year ago, when the event was cancelled shortly before it was to begin and one of its organizers was beaten by a group of masked men. Judging from the online reactions that began to appear as soon as the upcoming Equality March was announced, things may not go very smoothly this year as well.
29 April 2013

Ukraine's TVi Saga: 31 Journalists Resign
On FT.com's beyondbric blog, Graham Stack writes [en] about the “murky takeover” and “a tangled history of offshore ownership” of the Ukrainian TV station TVi, 31 of whose journalists resigned [uk] on April 29.
27 April 2013

RSF Addresses the Situation at Ukraine's TVi Channel

On April 26, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued a statement [en; fr; uk - .pdf] on the situation at the Ukrainian TV station TVi:
Reporters Without Borders condemns the sudden change of management at the opposition TV station TVi, announced three days ago, and is disturbed to learn that ensuing internal disputes have resulted in broadcasting being suspended. [...]
26 April 2013

Chernobyl: “The Most Horrifying Phone Talk of the Century”

April 26, 2013, marks the 27th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. Andriy Pryimachenko of peredova.com has created a video transcript [ru] of the audio recordings of the conversations that took place shortly after the blast between the dispatchers of the plant's firefighting unit and other firefighting dispatchers and officials. On his Korrespondent.net blog, Ivan Mateyko comments [uk] on this “most horrifying phone talk of the 20th century”:
[...] Hard to guess what these people were thinking back then and whether they knew how serious the situation and its possible consequences were, but the horror in their voices is evident. [...]
22 April 2013

“Manipulative” Coverage of Macedonia's Media Law
“Practice indicates that responsible and ethical journalism is never the result of state legislation and regulations, but of the voluntary compliance with the code created by the media community itself.”
This statement from the Guide on Ethics in Journalism [mk] opens Žarko Trajanoski's analysis [en] of the “manipulations” by Macedonia's “pro-government journalists” who “fanatically support and promote [the proposed Media Law].” The English-language version of Trajanovski's text was published by Metamorphosis: Foundation for Internet and Society (@fmeta), and it is also available in Macedonian and in Albanian. One of Trajanoski's conclusions is that “the most vigorous advocates for the adoption of a new Media Law since 2011 are exactly the journalists and editors flagrantly violating the ethical norms of the journalist code.”
21 April 2013

Bosnia & Herzegovina: “Dark Times, Black Humor”
A Sarajevo-based Boston native writes on Notes from Sarajevo Tumblr blog that “the last few days [since the Boston Marathon bombings] have served as a reminder of Bosnia’s particularly dark brand of humor”:
[...] To be sure, friends and colleagues here have been kind and considerate, asking if everyone I know is OK (they are.) But some also wasted no time joking about the situation. [...] one said, “Who would want to bomb a marathon? Must have been a smoker.” I’m not one to get prickly about a joke I can’t appreciate, and in fact I respect the instinct to use humor to cope with tragedy, but it did strike me how very badly that would go over in the States right now. [...]
15 April 2013

Running 1,000 Miles for Europe's Trafficked Children

This month, Rob Martineau, Tom Stancliffe, and Guy Hacking are running 1,000 miles from Odessa to Dubrovnik, via Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Croatia, as part of the Run For Love 1000 campaign, whose aim is to raise funds for Love146, a UK charity that “gives care and hope to trafficked children, and to raise awareness of the scale of human trafficking across Europe.” Follow their run on the RFL1000 website, on Facebook, and on Twitter; support the runners by donating here (215 donations have been made so far, with nearly £12,500 raised).
13 April 2013
Ukraine's Language Issue: Voices From the Ground
Ukrainian politicians' views on the language issue are well-known. But what do ordinary Ukrainians think of it? And how does it affect the people who reside in the predominantly Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine - those who are the target audience of the politicians who, in 2012, voted in favor of the language law?































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China must step in to protect indigenous Mongoloid Asiatic native people & their lands, and...