2d ago

Editorial: Zelensky just betrayed Ukraine's democracy — and everyone fighting for it

Last week, we warned of a coming anti-democratic backslide. Now, we see it happening.

Under the new law, the prosecutor general, a notoriously non-independent figure, will now oversee anti-corruption investigations — in a complete overturn of the system that was set up to be independent from other law enforcement bodies.

In reality, it means that Zelensky’s office will be able to stop investigations with a phone call.

It also closely follows an escalated prosecution of Ukraine’s best-known anti-corruption activist, an outspoken critic of Zelensky.

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Before you straight up downvote this after reading just the headline you should know that Kyiv Independent is highly credible and staffed with reputable journalists.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/kyiv-independent-bias/ (not that I personally think MBFC is a reputable references, but the people who would downvote this, for the most part, do)
- For those out of the loop, KyivIndependent is a heavily Western leaning pro-Ukraine news outlet.
  
  Wow the Ukraine media is pro ukraine? Who'd've thought?
  
  Given that Zelensky nationalized Ukrainian media and made himself censorship czar, I’da thought.
  
  Tsar, you say?
- lemmy's "general interest" instances are filled with title-only-reacting redditors and it shows.
  
  Hey, they also react on who post this and the source, when the same info just with way less inflammatory headline was posted by someone who is not western shill from something that isn't just CIA media front, it was like -30 votes lol.
  Also, it's starting, Zelensky's getting demythologised by even western aligned media prior to his inevitable downfall. Just like us commies said long ago, but libs were frothing at mouth then.
  
  They're still frothing at the mouth, they're just changing targets. Libs are doing mental warmups for the incredible gymnastics they're gonna have to pull off to pretend that this was unforeseen and tAnKiEs got it all wrong anyway.
  
  Libs traditionally tailing imperial media into being against every war but the current one.
  
  We have redditors among us?
  True, sometimes whole threads in a heated discussion, that revolves around assumptions they have about the title.
  Hold your horses, at least skim over the article, fucking redditors /s
- This is an editorial though, it has nothing to do with their journalists.
  
  Editorial by The Kyiv Independent. That is their jounalists.
  
  So, unnamed journalists, or perhaps the owner, or...? No leader is perfect, but wartime and holding your own against Putin is no easy feat. You could do 1000x worse than him and now you're nitpicking during war time? I guess I'm jealous that you feel like you can when our trainwreck is still building concentration camps to enrich his buddies.
  The last few lines are getting closer,
  Ukraine’s democracy can still be salvaged. In peacetime, that responsibility would fall on the Ukrainian people.
  But today, Ukrainians are fighting — and dying — for Europe and the whole free world.
  Will the West hold the line for them?
  
  perhaps the owner
  The independent is journalist owned, afaik.
  
  This is wikipedia, so it's probably a little biased. Biased in what way is something I don't know enough to say. This does tell us something though, they want to hold everyone's feet to the fire. I understand why journalists want to do this is normal times, but when there is a war going on, you need people to be behind you. Also, most people are ignorant and need to be spoon fed, especially during war time. They have other shit on their mind and they need a hero in their lives.
  The Kyiv Independent
  In October 2021, disputes arose between employees of the Kyiv Post and the owner of the newspaper. Journalists at the newspaper believed that even under the presidency of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, their previous critical reporting was adversely affecting the business of the owner, who had bought the barely-profitable newspaper from Mohammad Zahoor in March 2018, and invested significant funds in it. The owner of the Kyiv Post at the time was the Syrian-born investor Adnan Kivan (Kadorr Group, which owns Channel Odesa 7). Brian Bonner, the former CEO of the Kyiv Post, said in April 2022 that the newspaper's "fragmentary reporting" had brought it into conflict with every Ukrainian government it dealt with so far, including Zelensky's. According to Bonner, Zelenskyy had tried to portray himself as a reformer to Western governments, and alleged that critical reporting had been seen as undermining that message. The government, Bonner said, had begun to lean on Kivan, who had seen ownership of a "crusading media outlet" as more trouble than it was worth.[2][3]
  The president's office denies it, the prosecutor's office denies it, Kivan denies it - but I know we were under pressure ... The Kyiv Post survived [former presidents] Kuchma, Yushchenko, Yanukovych, and Poroshenko, but died under Zelenskyy. That was a big surprise to me.[2]
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kyiv_Independent
  Edit: I'm going to add this, they are owned by journalists and a media company apparently
  The Kyiv Independent is an English-language Ukrainian online newspaper founded in November 2021, three months before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, by former staff of the Kyiv Post and media consultancy Jnomics Media. The online newspaper is also active on Twitter, Bluesky and Reddit.[1]
  
  This is wikipedia, so it’s probably a little biased. Biased in what way is something I don’t know enough to say.
  On the whole Wikipedia is biased toward capitalism & Western imperialism/neocolonialism.
  The Grayzone, 2020: Meet Wikipedia’s Ayn Rand-loving founder and Wikimedia Foundation’s regime-change operative CEO
  Katherine Maher has since left her Wikimedia CEO position for the NPR CEO position. She’s also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council, and the US State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, among other Atlantacist organizations. She used to work for the World Bank.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Maher
  https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia#CEO_Katherine_Maher
  
  Nah, I meant the editors can be biased occasionally. Articles can be edited like a see saw from biased to unbiased to biased the other way, etc.
  
  The Ukrainian revolution had from the very start an anti corruption message. Politicians have both taken advantage and undermined it. This week is not unexpected. Zelenskyy backtracking today is not unexpected. Him using smoke and mirrors, in his new idea, to avoid undermining political allies will not be unexpected next month.
  It is utterly predictable that this newspaper will issue similar editorial later.
  One day there will be not so much corruption in the life blood of Ukrainian politics. But not soon. Maybe in a generation?
  
  yeah I sorta wish the news communities did not allow editorials. I mean im pretty sure they would not allow people to just post about their opinion of some news.
  
  I don't mind editorials with a name or names behind them because you then look them up and see what kind of intentions they have. This is no bueno.
  
  meh. I feel an editorial is like our comments on a news article. I sorta wish we could seperate news items and editorials.
  
  I can see that, but I disagree. If Bernie Sanders wrote an editorial about cleaning up politics, I would want to read that. I probably wouldn't want to read about /u/ilovetits's take on it.
  
  Separating news and editorial would not stop that though. You would just read it in an editorial community rather than a news one.

49 comments