The Verkhovna Rada voted in favor of a resolution recommending that President Leonid Kuchma dismiss the head of the National Television Company, Oleksandr Savenko.\n\n299 deputies voted for this document.\n\nThe resolution, which provides for a demand to Kuchma to dismiss the head of UT-1, was voted for by the factions "Our Ukraine," BYuT, SPU, CPU, NDP, the Agrarian Party, 41 out of 68 deputies of the "Regions of Ukraine" faction, and 12 out of 18 members of the "People's Power" group.\n\nSavenko's dismissal was also supported by Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and Vice-Speaker Oleksandr Zinchenko. First Vice-Speaker Adam Martyniuk did not vote for the resolution.\n\nThe SDPU(o) and "Deminitiatives" factions gave not a single vote for this resolution.\n\nPoint two of this resolution establishes that the President of Ukraine is proposed to consider as soon as possible the matter of the official unsuitability of the president of the National Television Company of Ukraine for violating a number of norms of Ukrainian legislation.\n\nThe head of the committee on freedom of speech, Mykola Tomenko, noted in his comment that "in this way the Verkhovna Rada has expressed its principled position against the transformation of the National Television Company into a propaganda machine of one political force, the SDPU(o), and also against the inefficient use of budget funds."\n\nThe resolution also provides that in May 2004 the Verkhovna Rada shall hear the report of the temporary parliamentary investigative commission on verifying the NTKU's compliance with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation regarding the use of budget funds.\n\nAs is known, the head of the NTKU, Oleksandr Savenko, before his appointment to this position worked in the Main Information Directorate of the presidential administration. Savenko is considered a protégé of Medvedchuk.\n\nIn the mid-1990s, Savenko was already dismissed from the position of head of UT-1.