Maidan

In connection with the NATO summit scheduled for the end of this year, Putin’s government has intensified its disinformation campaign against its former imperial possession because it cannot come to terms with the reality of Ukrainian independence.

Why do we tolerate untruth in the media? After all the most marvellous journalist initiatives against paid news items and all discussion around information wars are meaningless without one vital component - outrage at being conned and treated like idiots.

The Aarhus Convention reads like a response to Chernobyl. It is after all about the right to know and to have a say in what immediately concerns us. That its provisions must be observed is at once staggeringly obvious and a point the Ukrainian authorities seem gallingly reluctant to understand

During the last week in what appears to be a well-coordinated Russian plan, anti-Ukrainian articles have appeared in the European press explaining Ukraine should not be in NATO or the EU. But, instead of arguments based on say, the high level of corruption in Ukraine, or that the old neo-soviet russophile elite is still all too powerful despite the Orange Revolution and is thereby preventing the implementation of democratic reforms, authors use old Russian-imperial ideas in fallacious arguments.

Yes, the system is flawed and needs changing. However, Maidan convinced the world of Ukraine’s unequivocal choice - democracy. What nobody is convinced about is that Ukraine’s politicians have learned their lessons. Perhaps it’s time we teach them? Appealing to conscience is undoubtedly correct however this should not preclude looking for other forms of leverage (Reflections on the article "Moral Holodomor")

On a repulsive Hitler doll, fighting stereotypes and shoddy journalism and on some success in asserting our right to truthful information

The four main media outlets - BBC. Deutsche Welle, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail - which posted inaccurate and misleading information about a Hitler doll have now removed the offending material. We repeat our call for a public apology and our intention to approach the press complaints bodies if an apology is not forthcoming.

It is galling that you can buy the doll in one shop in Kyiv, as well as in England, the USA and other countries. I don’t think I will ever fathom how people can buy figures of Hitler and Stalin. However something else remains quite incomprehensible. How can you manufacture a sensation based on lies at the expense of a nation which suffered from fascists and butchers of all breeds?

We will be asking how the BBC came to use the news report of a Russian television company reporting on a story about Ukraine. Used it, we would add, without any reference to its source, and with at least one crucial omission. Of no less interest is how a UK newspaper could have quoted as its source yet seriously distorted a Ukrainian newspaper article. In fact, general bemusement is difficult to avoid over the fact that not one of these media outlets would appear to have checked any of the information they reported on site

I would ask Yury Lutsenko and all those calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty to just type in the following words on Google: DNA, wrongful, prison. Or try torture and confession. You’ll read enough arguments to last a lifetime.