Espreso and Holka: We see manifestations of censorship and attempt to remove material about Shuliak and Kubrakov from site

The author of the column “Servant of the People leader Shuliak and Deputy Prime Minister Kubrakov inspect Kyiv-Mohyla Academy: What's wrong with it?” is an analyst at the Holka civil initiative.

It was published on espreso.tv on March 26.

This article contains a quote from the rector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Serhiy Kvit, who mentions Shuliak and Kubrakov in the context of the urban planning "reform.”

"Those who lobbied for the scandalous urban planning 'reform' 5655, which did not provide for the proper protection of cultural heritage, decided to whitewash themselves in the information field and show the public that they are still in favor of this heritage. And here it is very important to record one more detail: when did the head of the ruling party write her request (regarding the restoration work with the Mohyla cells - ed.)? Last year on December 21. It was on this day that we openly presented the documents at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. And among the experts were those who are working on an alternative to 5655, the Urban Development Code. A week before, the Ministry of Regional Development failed to pass a resolution clone of the urban planning "reform" that was criticized by the European Parliament, the European Commission, and recently by Chatham House. But no one will allow politicians to whitewash themselves using Mohylianka's reputation.”

On March 28, Espreso was approached to take the material down.

"Our commercial department, which is responsible for advertising, was approached by an intermediary who asked for money to remove this material from the Espreso website. The standards used by our editorial board not only do not allow us to take money for clearing the information field, but also oblige us to inform the public about such attempts to prevent further attempts to interfere with editorial policy," says Anastasia Ravva, general producer of Espreso.

Iryna Fedoriv, head of the Holka civic initiative, emphasizes that this is not the first attempt to clean up the information field when it comes to the scandalous urban planning "reform" (5655) or work on an alternative initiative, the Urban Planning Code:

"Big reconstruction means big money. And big money means big players who seek to create unfair rules of the game. The Royal Chatham House Institute, which used the analysis of our expert Mohylnyi about the government's corruption in the time of war to prepare the document "Strengthening Long-Term Resilience in Ukraine. Fighting Corruption in Times of War'', used our expert Mohylnyi's analysis of the government decree clone of the urban planning ‘reform’ and emphasized that there are risks of a construction cartel. Does anyone else have doubts that we have a cartel? Large developers want rules of the game that suit them and allow them to quickly use funds for reconstruction. There is no need for unnecessary noise. Earlier, censorship was manifested in the Uriadovyi Kurier. Espresso is not a government publication. They couldn't remove the material administratively, so they tried to solve it for money. It didn't work," Fedoriv comments.

According to her, unfortunately, everyone has become accustomed to the story of the legislative initiative 5655 and the behavior of lobbyists over the past 2 years.

"Now, against this background, the attempt to discredit the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy looks most shameful. An assistant to a Kyiv City Council deputy from the Servant of the People party accused the head of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy of... wearing jeans! Who is really trying to clean up the information field for money? These cases should be a signal to our international partners. As for the central government, after such priceless lobbying, which has been slowing down the country's development for years, there should be personnel decisions," Fedoriv summarizes.