Head of Radio Kontynent, a private Kiev-based FM station, Serhiy Sholokh, has sent an open letter to Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, asking him not to allow Kontynent’s broadcasts to be stopped. The letter has been published on the web site of Ukrainian human-rights organisation the Institute of Mass Information.
Sholokh says he has learnt from reliable sources that the leadership of the presidential administration “has issued a secret instruction to uniformed agencies, the State Committee for Communications and Information Technology and tax authorities to take urgent steps to stop the broadcasting of Radio Kontynent”.
Because Kontynent rebroadcasts foreign news services – the Voice of America, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Polish Radio – Sholokh believes that any actions against his radio station can also be considered as aimed against the presence of these stations in Ukrainian information space.