Media center aims to provide reliable information for elections (02/20/94)

Media center aims to provide reliable information for elections

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyyiv Press Bureau

KYYIV - A media information center directed at supplying the press, the foreign diplomatic corps and the citizens of Ukraine balanced news on the upcoming Parliament elections opened here on February 9. The effort called Elections 94 gathers information from political parties, the government and its own staff of writers, and dispatches daily press releases and a weekly bulletin to the mass media and foreign embassies in Ukraine.

The parliamentary elections scheduled for March 27 will be the first democratic multi-party ones for this country since Ukraine declared independence. Many still question the amount of press freedom here.

Serhiy Naboka, editor-in-chief of the press center, said Ukraine's Central Election Commission still is not trusted by much of the press. "The commission at times gives inaccurate or incomplete information," he said. "We want to channel information from a variety of sources to give the people as much information as possible on the candidates."

Svitlyana Zvarych, administrative director of the effort, said the goal is to inform the voters about the candidates and their positions as best possible. "To get the 450 best possible parliamentarians, we need to get the best information to the voters," she said.

In order to obtain a wide spectrum of information, Ukrainian press bureaus and foreign press in Ukraine were asked to dedicate reporters to the Elections 94 staff and to join the group's board of directors and financial staffs.

Ms. Zvarych said that at the initial gathering of the group, 33 diplomats, 28 foreign agencies, 78 Ukrainian journalists and 14 political parties expressed interest or support for the undertaking.

Staff writers currently number 22, directed by Mr. Naboka, also editor-in-chief of the Respublika news agency (UNIAR). He said the staff includes correspondents from Post-Postup, Kharkiv News Agency, Symon, Odessa Independent Television, Voice of America and Radio Liberty, among others. They are divided into three sections: Ukrainian-language, English-language and Russian-language.

Roman Zvarych, the liaison between the center and the foreign diplomatic corps as well as with political parties, said a press network has been developed throughout Ukraine. "We have at least one reporter and usually more in all the oblasts of Ukraine," he said.

The largest funder of the effort is the Soros Foundation, which has given an initial sum of $25,000 to finance the operation. The donation includes computers and various other technical support equipment. Ms. Zvarych said she feels the Soros Foundation grant will cover the press center's needs through February. "We believe that it will cost $64,000 to sustain us through March."

She added that the foundation's major requirement was that the press center remain unaligned with any political party and maintain objectivity in its press releases.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) is also a sponsor of the press center. They have agreed to pay the salaries of some of the staff writers and to partially finance the publication costs. Several foreign embassies and private groups as well have offered financial and technical support, including the Dutch Embassy, the Ukrainian Financial Group, Mercury, a Ukrainian commercial firm, and the International Research and Exchanges Board.

Elections 94 headquarters are located in the Ukrainian Home on the Khreshchatyk in the city center. Mr. Zvarych said the building's directors have supported the effort by reducing the price for rental space from $6 to 54 cents per square meter. They have also furnished several phone lines at no cost.

| Home Page |