Donetsk governor of Taruta is trying to buy the loyalty of the local press
Kyiv, March 12 (Navigator, Denis Andreev) – The governor of the Donetsk region, oligarch Sergei Taruta, asked the editors-in-chief of local publications to support the government and abandon journalistic investigations, and in return promised an increase in the number of advertisers. The editor-in-chief of “Donbass News” Alexey Matsuka writes about this on his blog on Facebook.
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“He (Taruta - ed.) said that now is not the time for investigative journalism, because journalists need to unite with the authorities. And he said that some journalists had already dug up Pozhidaev’s mansion. I told him that we are these journalists, and Pozhidaev’s mansion in Shcherbakov Park is on the property of the territorial community,” writes Matsuka.
Sergei Taruta also promised that in return for the newspapers’ loyalty, local businesses would place advertisements in them. Alexey Matsuka proposed another option: abandon the publication of communal media, and direct the freed-up funds to a special fund to support independent media in the Donetsk region.
Donetsk Governor Taruta is trying to buy the loyalty of the local press.