The Vancouver Sun: Ukraine media feel political heat

For Natalia Sokolenko, an award-winning Ukrainian TV reporter, the last straw was when she was taken off covering the national political scene and demoted to reporting road accidents for the commercial news station where she had worked for 10 years.

Her career, she said, had been on a slide since she lobbed a provocative question at President Viktor Yanukovich and fought attempts by politicians and businessmen to buy screen time at her STB channel on the sly.

With a parliamentary election due on Oct. 28, journalists complain of increased pressure on independent newspapers and key TV news outlets from the authorities and their allies.