Topic: “Behind the mask of the restart. How ‘temporary shutdown’ of KyivPost could threaten freedom of speech?”

Press center UCMC announce

The discussion will start on Nov 15 at 10 AM in our press center in the Ukrainian House (2 Khreshchatyk st, Kyiv).

On November 8, statement about the temporary shutdown for rebooting was published on the website of the English-language newspaper Kyiv Post. In turn, the staff of the newspaper reported that it was closed completely, and the whole team was forcibly fired. The embassies of the USA, Germany, Sweden and the EU mission expressed their regret in this regard.

Despite the fact that the newspaper’s owner Adnan Kivan emphasizes the reformatting of the Kyiv Post and denies any pressure from the authorities, there is a widespread opinion in the journalistic community that such decision was made due to pressure from the President’s Office. Ukraine Crisis Media Center is initiating a public discussion to find out:

• What are the real reasons for closing KyivPost after 26 years of continuous work, and who is responsible for this decision?

• Can the situation around the newspaper be considered an attack on freedom of speech and democratic processes in Ukraine?

• What will be the consequences of closing the only weekly English-language newspaper for the image of the current government and Ukraine in general?