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Rally denounces pressure on Ukrainian TV channel
September 8, 2012 - 11:39 AM
Ukrainian poet Dmytro Pavlychko, foreground center, passes by a poster depicting Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko through prison bars on a TV screen during a rally in support of independent TVi channel in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. Some 1,000 activists demanded the cases against TVi Channel be dropped and that the government stops pressure on independent media. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators have rallied in the center of the Ukrainian capital to protest what they call the government's crackdown on one of the few remaining independent TV channels ahead of parliamentary elections in late October.
About 1,500 people gathered on Saturday in support of the TVi channel and freedom of speech in Ukraine.
TVi, which is broadcast in big cities and on some cable systems, has found itself under pressure from authorities. Its offices were raided by police, many cable companies stopped transmitting it, and its director was charged with tax evasion, although the charges were later dropped.
Media and rights groups complain of increasingly shrinking media freedoms in Ukraine since Viktor Yanukovych became president in 2010.
(Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
