The state has nothing to do with instances of pressure being put on the mass media, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.
"I do not rule out that the fundamental right of any citizen or journalist to speak their minds freely through the mass media, [but they] may run into certain obstacles. But I want to say with full responsibility that the state is in no way involved. What is meant here, perhaps, is a conflict of interests in the business medium between the owners of mass media groups, which opposition forces are portraying in the world as attempts to curb freedom of the media in Ukraine," Yanukovych said in a ceremony marking Ukraine’s Independence Day on the central square of Kyiv on Tuesday.
The government will welcome any public organization that would wish to study the observance of freedom of the press in Ukraine. "This would demonstrate that we have nothing to hide," Yanukovych said.
