Journalists from five more television companies joined the journalists' protest camp on the eve of the elections. Employees of ICTV, Inter, Novy Kanal, Tonis and NTN (which goes on air on November 1) signed a statement. It does not contain a direct demand to stop censorship, but it does contain words of protest. That is enough for the wise. Enough to understand that the policy of destroying human dignity among television journalists, which the presidential administration has pursued over the past years, has hit a wall of resistance.

The journalists, of whom there were 39 at the time the document was made public, signed an obligation to adhere to the standards of a free press.

According to one of the coordinators of the action, Yehor Soboliev, the participation of 1+1 journalists in this action was also envisaged. However, they later refused to sign the letter. At present, various information is coming from the channel. Some say that an internal search is under way there for a way to express protest. Others claim that after fruitful negotiations between the "faces of the channel" and general producer Oseledchyk, the sides reached, so to speak, a "consensus."

"Preparation for this action began two weeks ago and many colleagues from 1+1 were nearby. There, too, there is a group of people who have taken a hard line, and there, too, it comes to dismissals," Soboliev says.

The impression is that Novy Kanal is the most resolute. Censorship there is being introduced in a very delicate way – news broadcasts have simply been shortened to 10 minutes.

"From Novy Kanal, this document was signed by the chief editor, two output editors and the anchors who will present the broadcasts during the elections. And we will work honestly on election night. If the pressure increases, we will find other, more effective ways to convey information," says one of the output editors, Yuliia Zhmakina.

People from ICTV call for not dividing journalists into those who signed the statement and those who did not. "We do not need to divide ourselves. The strike will be effective if there are not 40 of us, but 400," says Viktor Soroka. "We should not make enemies of top managers; they too are in a certain vice. We need to help them become different."

"We do not want to talk about politics, but about the profession," Zhmakina says. "For now we are choosing the path of protest at our workplaces."

Below we present the text of the journalists' memorandum and the people who put their signatures under it. Whether the protest action succeeds will be visible from the evening television news.

STATEMENT OF JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINIAN TELEVISION CHANNELS

We, the journalists of Ukrainian television channels, are concerned by the threat that the decisive period of the elections will be covered in a distorted form.

Contrary to the standards of professional journalism, the authorities, and under their pressure part of the owners and managers of television channels, seek to keep silent about important events or distort their essence.

We are aware of our own responsibility for providing people with information on the basis of which they make their decisions.

Therefore we demand adherence to the following standards of covering events: 1. All information programs must report on all socially significant events; 2. All information programs must present all significant points of view on the events being covered; 3. All information that goes on air must be verified and contain references to sources.

We undertake to comply with these standards.

We are confident that full and professional coverage of the decisive period of the elections is extremely necessary for viewers.

We call on colleagues to join and support our position!

The statement was signed by: from ICTV

1. Serhii Shvets 2. Viktor Soroka 3. Volodymyr Zadyraka 4. Natalia Ostapenko 5. Ruslana Moskalenko 6. Alla Karliuk 7. Olena Skobalo 8. Oleksandr Myroniuk 9. Oksana Mykhailiuk 10. Petro Demianchuk 11. Bohdan Kharakhash 12. Tetiana Prudnykova 13. Yurii Ladkai

from TV company "Novy Kanal"

14. Kyrylo Lukerenko 15. Oleh Klymchyk 16. Mariia Trach 17. Vira Karaicheva 18. Vasyl Samokhvalov 19. Oleksandr Bol 20. Dmytro Furdak 21. Pavlo Kuzheiev 22. Yuliia Zhmakina 23. Lidiia Taran 24. Yevhen Sadovyi

from TV company "Tonis"

25. Dmytro Tuzov 26. Hryhorii Andrushchak

from TV company NTN

27. Osman Pashaiev 28. Tetiana Kukhotska 29. Kyrylo Khoroshylov

from TV company "Inter"

30. Ilarion Pavliuk 31. Oleksii Koval 32. Anastasiia Obraztsova 33. Ruslan Yarmoliuk 34. Olha Buianovska 35. Vitalii Kovach 36. Volodymyr Horkovenko 37. Oleksii Ivanov 38. Maksym Ravreba

from Studio "1+1"

39. Vakhtanh Kipiani, "Double Proof"

To support the initiative of television journalists and put your signature under the appeal, you need to send a letter to zmi2004@ua.fm or call the numbers: 8-050-512-33-84 (Mykhailyna Skoryk); 8-050-351-81-41 (Yehor Soboliev)