President Viktor Yanukovych wrote a letter to World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers CEO Christoph Riess, inviting the organization to conduct its 2012 World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Kyiv.
In this way Viktor Yanukovych officially confirmed the invitation he had made during his meeting with Christoph Riess in October 2010.
"Conducting these congress and forum in our country will not be a coincidence. After all, Ukraine is moving steadily forward towards creating a democratic society and building independent media," the letter reads.
The President stressed that Kyiv is a modern European capital that will host Euro 2012 finals and will have every capability to hold such a large-scale event.
"Recently, transparent and efficient rules of access to public information have been introduced at the legislative level, real work has begun to create public television, the investigation of Georgiy Gongadze’s murder has been conducted more actively," the President said in the letter.
Viktor Yanukovych expressed confidence that holding the forum and congress in Ukraine will promote further development of freedom of speech, including in the national media.
"Conducting these events in Kyiv is an important step on Ukraine's European path. It would reaffirm the choice of Ukraine of being a country that seeks to strengthen democratic values, of which the freedom of speech and press is an integral part," he said.
Note: On October 13, 2010 during the World Editors Forum held in
Hamburg (Germany) WAN-IFRA President Gavin O'Reilly said that in 2012
Ukraine would host the World Newspaper Congress.
