You read it here first... (07/21/96)

You read it here first...

Following is an excerpt of a story written by R. L. Chomiak for TWG News, the newsletter of The Washington Group, about an event at which The Ukrainian Weekly's news story reporting the Parliament's adoption of a new Constitution of Ukraine was distributed.

"... [Friday, June 28] also was the day that in Kyiv, the Supreme Council (Parliament) approved independent Ukraine's first Constitution, so the forum included an unscheduled speaker: the Ukrainian Embassy's press attaché, Vasyl Zorya, who briefed the audience about this fundamental law that took at least three years to write.

"And, Orest Deychakiwsky [of the Helsinki Commission], came armed with photocopies of Marta Kolomayets's news story for The Ukrainian Weekly printed hours earlier and faxed to him from the paper's Jersey City editorial offices.

"Readers of the local paper, The Washington Post, had to wait until the next morning to read James Rupert's story about the Constitution, but those attending the forum could read about it 12 hours earlier, which reinforced Mr. Rupert's contention made a few months earlier at another TWG forum, that in Washington, Ms. Kolomayets's coverage gets more attention than his own."

[Editor's note: After an all-night marathon session, Parliament had approved the Constitution on Friday, June 28, at 9:18 a.m. Kyiv time. Ms. Kolomayets e-mailed the story about this historic event to the home office by early Friday morning Eastern time, the day The Weekly goes to press, so that it still made the front page of the paper dated June 30. Excerpts of the story were immediately posted on the Internet in the Current Events section of Ukraine FAQ Plus.]

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