"If you don’t like what the press is writing about you, buy the press. Judging from recent events, this is the approach of a Ukrainian businessman who has been the subject of investigative reporting by the Kiev edition of Forbes magazine.
The businessman in question, 27-year-old “multimillionaire from nowhere” Sergei Kurchenko, has just acquired the Forbes licensee, UMH Group. Until recently, UMH was the only large media holding in Ukraine whose owners had no potentially conflicting interests outside the media market. (Disclosure: I was editor of a UMH-owned publication, Forbes.ua, throughout 2012.)
Observers in Kiev believe the deal has political implications in the run-up to the 2015 presidential election. In any case, it offers a study in the way media are faring under the post-Soviet authoritarian regimes. Direct suppression is not necessary when a simple change of ownership that looks like an ordinary business deal can be arranged."
'via Blog this'
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