Pouring oil on troubled waters - EU Ambassador to Ukraine

tombinski

The new head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, (Ambassador for want of a better analogy), Jan Tombinski, seems to be doing his very best to pour oil on the somewhat choppy waters between Ukraine and the EU in efforts to smooth matters between the two sides to some degree. He recently gave a press […]

Criminalisation of defamation - Ukraine

defamation

Well, much has been written in the Ukrainian press, many horrified tweets from Ukrainian journalists on twitter, (at least amongst those I follow and those that follow me), and many paragraphs have been blogged about the passing at the first reading, of the law to re-criminalise defamation (libel and slander). I briefly mentioned it a […]

In Supporting Pussy Riot - What The F**k FEMEN?

femen

OK - A Russian court sentenced Pussy Riot to 2 years in jail yesterday for their little stunt in a Russian Orthodox Cathedral.  To the very liberal thinkers, maybe that is absolutely fine.  For the broadminded, maybe somewhat obnoxious but nevertheless freedom of speech and expression is fundamental, albeit somewhat distasteful in the chosen location. […]

The trials and tribulations of being an independent TV station in Ukraine

television

Normally I stay away from the headline news in Ukraine, quite simply because you can read about that in other places, albeit I wouldn’t guarantee the objectivity, accuracy or unbiasedness of the reporting in those places necessarily. Like so many foundational pillars of society in Ukraine, the media here also too often sets low standards […]

Are bloggers journalists? - A question with Lord Justice Leveson

murdoch

OK - This has nothing to do with Ukraine - yet - but legal precedents have a habit of seeping across international borders if they suit the establishment in other nations that have similar issues and can see similar solutions. For many, many months I have been following the Leveson Inquiry via the website and […]

The Gods of Internet strike thee down!

Apologise for not having written anything yesterday and only this brief statement today, but to plagerise Ezekiel 25:17. The path to the Internet in Ukraine is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men and poor coverage. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and […]

Should there be limits on free speech? Odessa’s Art TV

television

In a democracy or anything claiming to be a democracy, should there be a limit on free speech? In this article, Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, and probably the best leader of Ms Tymoshenko’s party it will unfortunately never have, takes a very robust swipe at Art TV for fueling “ethnic hatred” and […]

EU Foreign Policy and Human Rights through an EaP lens

Without going into too many specifics deliberately it maybe time to look a the EU foreign policy, specifically with regards to my part of the world, namely the EaP nations and how effective the EEAS has been in the first year since its creation. You may ask why I am deliberately avoiding specifics and the […]

Terrorism and swearing - Public morale laws?

Well I am going to write briefly about this whilst drawing your attention to a few caveats. Firstly the link holding the cited story comes from a source that is not best known for corroborating its stories. The reason I am using the source is because firstly it was sent to me by one of […]

Sticking with Euro 2012…….and nationalism

Following on rather neatly from yesterday’s post about police strategy for the Euro 2012 football tournament, whilst diligently passing a empirical eye over nationalism in Ukraine for those who pay (bless them), I came across a report on football and those to the far-right of the ideology spectrum. The report covers nationalism showing its face […]