No Morals

KIEV, Ukraine -- Last week Regions MP Eduard Prutnik was elected head of the State Committee for TV and Radio Broadcasting.

Eduard Prutnik (L)
Prutnik served as the deputy head of the Donetsk regional council and an advisor to Premier Yanukovych in 2002-05.

Formally, Prutnik has no experience of media, just PR work for Yanukovych. Yet, Prutnik’s name has been continually connected to ownership of a TV channel that has exhibited a pro-Regions bias.

He was also accused of rigging the 2004 election in favor of Yanukovych.

Such an overtly political person should not head a state body which has a say on programming on state media, particularly after the crude manipulation of the media seen when Yanukovych was first premier.

What is most astonishing is that of the 244 MPs who voted for Prutnik last week, 17 were from the supposedly opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

It is a damning indictment on the corruptibility of MPs that Yulia Tymoshenko says that one senior figure in the cabinet continues to bribe her MPs.

There is little moral fiber in Ukrainian politics.

State media appointments should be apolitical and based only on professionalism.

This appointment stinks of hypocrisy and should be condemned.

Not so long ago the Regions were telling us about the lack of professionalism in the Orange camp.

The danger is the Regions will soon get the necessary votes to amend the Constitution.

It is time for Tymoshenko to galvanize the opposition into action, otherwise there will be no counterweight to the authorities, and parliament could, if the wishes of one Regions MP materialize, shortly be electing the president, depriving voters of this right.

Source: Kyiv Post