When this weeks' Focus magazine started disappearing from press kiosks and the internet, the media community suspected a new case of censorship that took place because of the infographics on three years of Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, which came out in the Feb. 22 issue.
Focus found
that Yanukovych spent
Hr 900,000 of public money on flowers
for official events, Hr 343 million to repair two state residencies in
Crimea and Hr 7.5 million for leasing of his helicopter Augusta 139. This is
just a tiny part of the Hr 1.2 billion
budget spent by taxpayers on their president every year.
After these and
other findings came out, readers
complained that the magazine started disappearing from newsstands during the
weekend following its publication because it was called back. Electronic
versions of stories about Yanukovych disappeared from the magazine’s web site
shortly after publication. Deliveries to subscribers seem to have gone unaffected, though.
UMH Group, the publisher of Focus, acknowledged in a statement that 20
percent of the magazine’s print run of 32,000 was recalled, but cited technical
problems. Journalists, however, gave different accounts of the same events.
Some of them even mulled quitting in protest.
The stories about Yanukovych were returned online on Feb. 25 following a public scandal,
and its chief editor said hard copies of the magazine are available for purchase in kiosks and other places of distribution.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Svitlana Tuchynska could be reached at [email protected]
