Inter has decided to dissolve the Public Council established to monitor observance of journalist standards. This follows staff and programme changes which may be aimed at improving rating, but hardly the channel’s balance and objectivity

There were strong statements on 7 March following the extraordinary ruling by the High Administrative Court to anul the MP status of opposition MP and civic defender of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko

The court effectively concluded that the Speaker is not obliged to exercise control in order to ensure that MPs comply with the Parliamentary Regulations and the Constitution on personal voting.

The Civic Network OPORA has been monitoring the legislative activity (or otherwise) of current MPs and finds that during February over half took no part in any legislative work

The timing was unreal. On the same day that five judges of the High Administrative Court stripped an opposition MP of his parliamentary mandate and immunity from prosecution, the government reported plans to improve security for judges and their families.

In the latest blow to rule of law in Ukraine and the country’s chance of signing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, Serhiy Vlasenko, Batkivshchyna MP and defender of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been stripped of his mandate.

OPORA has drawn attention to the questionable situation where public funding is allocated to pay MPs substantial amounts for “assistants”, yet the public and media are refused information about who these assistants are

This was the title of a civic protest by Transparency International in Ukraine and other NGOs angry at the stalemate over the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and State Programme on Preventing and Countering Corruption

While State-owned UTV-1’s coverage was predictably the worst, Inter had shown a sharp improvement. This, judging by the latest events seems unlikely to continue

Volodymyr Kutsenko, a KHPG lawyer, has finally succeeded - at cassation level in the High Specialized Court on Civil and Criminal Cases - in getting a criminal case initiated over the death of a remand prisoner

Six months after a scandalous law which removes state enterprises from the tender system, the civic watchdog “Nashi Hroshi” [“Our Money”] reports that the amounts of public funding now unaccounted for has risen sharply

The German Foreign Ministry would seem to have made it clear that Kyiv can forget about the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and free trade if there is no resolution with the Tymoshenko case, including with her defender Serhiy Vlasenko

Yury Yakymenko, Director of Political – Legal Programmes for the Razumkov Centre sees a clear political motive in both the new murder charges against Yulia Tymoshenko and the supposed new evidence against Kuchma over the killing of Georgy Gongadze

A statement issued on Monday says that management, staff and the main owner have agreed on ways of resolving recent problems and that the management have taken responsibility for the news items at the centre of the latest conflict

Serhiy Kivalov, Party of the Regions MP and author of one of three draft laws on higher education has asserted that the compulsory nature of the system of Independent external assessment [ZNO] restricts people trying to get into university

In Mykolaiv the Memorial to Victims of the Holocaust was defiled (with a foul word daubed over the memorial plaque, while in the Crimea the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of the Crimea was daubed with a swastika, five-pointed star and foul language

While politically motivated trials of opposition leaders have sent Ukraine’s reputation and chances of European integration plummeting, the judges involved are at present on an upward spiral

The attempts to strip Serhiy Vlasenko, opposition MP and Tymoshenko’s defender of his mandate are especially worrying given criminal investigations initiated against him in January this year

The criminal investigation against Bohdan Danylyshyn, Economy Minister in Yulia Tymoshenko’s Government has been terminated, almost 2 years after he was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic

Sergei Magnitsky’s Relatives Challenge the State Authority to Appoint Defence Lawyer to Magnitsky in his Posthumous Proceedings