Parliamentary Deputy Hanna Herman, the deputy head of the Party of the Regions parliamentary faction, dreams of privatizing Radio Liberty.
Hermansaid this at a meeting with journalists in Donetsk on Dec. 22.
"My dream was to privatize Radio Liberty, but I am afraid that I will not succeed in doing that," Herman said.
Herman reaffirmed her intention to return tojournalism if the Party of the Regions’ leader Victor Yanukovych wins the 2010 presidential elections.
"If that victory happens, I will consider that I have done everything that I can in my life. Of course, I will return [to the profession of journalism]," Herman said, adding that she loved the profession and that she got a lot of satisfaction from it.
According to Herman, journalisms needs people who have significant weight in the society today.
"There is a lot of pressure on journalists from the owners [of mass media organizations], from the people in power and own the media. In order to counter this, it is necessary to come out and say that I am being prevented from writing about this. For this, it is necessary to have some weight in life. I have acquired some of this weight over the past five years. I will use it to uphold the standards of independent journalism," Herman said.
She also said that she had not yet decided whether to create her own media organization or seeking employment in one of the existing mass media organizations.
As earlier reported, Herman promised in early December to return to the profession of journalism if Yanukovych won the 2010 presidential elections.
The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc recently said that Herman was exerting pressure on the mass media not to cover the issue of Yanukovych’s ownership of the Mezhyhorie residence in the village of Petrovtsi (Vyshhorod district of the Kyiv region).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is an international broadcast organization that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East. RFE/RL is funded by the United States’ Congress.
