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Zahoor: Brian Bonner is to remain Editor of Kyiv Post

20.04.2011    source: www.telekritika.ua
The conflict at Kyiv Post has been resolved, with its owner Mohammad Zahoor having agreed to reinstate Brian Bonner and to create an Editorial Board overseeing the newspaper’s editorial independence

Brian Bonner is to be reinstated as Editor of Kyiv Post. An Editorial Board will be created made up of Bonner and three other editors. The newspaper’s owner, Mohammad Zahoor informed the press of this after meeting the newspaper’s staff.

It was Brian Bonner who brought Mr Zahoor to the meeting where the latter announced: “An Editorial Board will be created. Brian Bonner will be one of its members. This is in order to adhere to the principles of independent journalism”

The three other members of the Board will by Roman Olearchuk, Katya Gorchinskaya (presently the Deputy Chief Editor) and James Marson, Editor of the Business Section.

Mr Zahoor stated that the newspaper staff had been concerned about editorial independence without Brian Bonner.  He stressed that democracy and freedom of speech had been and would remain sacred.

He called the conflict a misunderstanding and said that it was all in the past.

One of the Kyiv Post journalists, Yury Onyshkiv told Telekritika that this was a victory for both parties and that the conflict was resolved.  The Editorial Board, he said, was to be created to ensure that there was no interference in editorial policy, and Mohammad Zahoor had assured the staff that there would be no interference from him.

Telekritika reports that according to their information, Mr Zahoor said during the meeting that if the team could by 1 September find the money to finance the newspaper, he would sell it to them for one dollar. This was in response to a question regarding whether he was planning to sell the newspaper.

As reported, on Friday the Chief Editor of the newspaper Kyiv Post, Brian Bonner, was dismissed by the owner of the newspaper, Mohammad Zahoor. The dismissal was apparently due to Mr Zahoor’s demand that an article be removed. “On the Hot Seat”, published in English and Ukrainian begins with the words: In Europe’s breadbasket, critics are talking about the ‘Great Grain Robbery.’ Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk is under fire for state controls on grain exports that favor a controversial company, Khlib InvestBud. Speaking with the Kyiv Post, Prysyazhnyuk defended the actions.

The Chief Editor refused to remove the article and was dismissed. The editorial team announced that they were going on strike in support of the Chief Editor’s position.

Following an article in Kommersant – Ukraine claiming that the conflict had been resolved,   the editorial team were forced to issue a statement stressing that this was not the case and that they were continuing to defend the Chief Editor and the newspaper’s editorial independence.

Congratulations to Brian Bonner and all the staff of Kyiv Post, and to Mohammad Zahoor for an excellent decision!

New information from Telekritika

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