Media bias roils election

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KIEV -- With six weeks to go before Ukraine's presidential elections, officials and observers warn that unbalanced media coverage and a crackdown on the independent press are threatening the balloting process.

"The biggest violation is [unequal] access of candidates to national channels," Nina Karpachova, the national ombudsman, told The Washington Times.

"Information ... is skewed, and that's for all candidates. It's not objective, and that's not normal. Society needs objective information so it can make a normal, balanced decision" on Election Day, Oct. 31.

The United States and Europe have warned Kiev that future relations will depend on whether the elections are free and fair. Viktor Yanukovych, currently prime minister and a leading contender for president, has promised his government will ensure transparency. In a July interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Yanukovych also said democratic media need to be expanded and improved.

Several Ukrainian nonprofit organizations monitoring the campaign, however, said the prime minister has received the majority of news coverage on state television and several national stations owned by businessmen sympathetic to him.

His main challenger, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, has been negatively portrayed in newscasts since the campaign began in July.

Miss Karpachova said she is so concerned about the situation that she canceled a recent trip to North America to monitor the situation. Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn has repeatedly called for balanced media coverage.

"Unfortunately, the situation with respect to the media in Ukraine in the run-up to the elections is discouraging," Rep. Christopher H. Smith, the New Jersey Republican who heads the U.S. Helsinki Commission, said in a statement last week.

"The election -- apparently because of the clear-cut choice between current Prime Minister Yanukovych, and leader of the Our Ukraine democratic bloc, Victor Yushchenko -- seems to have frightened those who are now in power. It seems the ruling regime has decided to interfere in media election coverage at an unprecedented scale, presumably with the expectation that the interference will ensure their victory at the polls."

Although state television and radio are broadcasting political statements from all 26 presidential candidates, media access could sway the outcome of the race, according to a poll conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology and Democratic Initiatives, a nonprofit organization.