Claim that Focus journal issue withdrawn over Yanukovych

When claims are made, even by one of the most well-known journalists in Ukraine, Mustafa Nayem, that a journal issue has been withdrawn, one turns to the journal’s site to check.

The site opened after two or three minutes, and looks most peculiar, however this could be because of the number of people also trying to check.

There is no journal visible, nor any statement confirming or retracting the information.  The latter is simply posted, on the basis of an Ukrainska Pravda text in which “Mustafa Nayem is reported as stating that an issue of the Focus journal has been removed from sale because of Yanukovych.  Information about the issue has also disappeared from the journal’s website.

The issue in question is the seventh for this year and its fourth article marks the third anniversary of Yanukovych’s inauguration. The article in question contains an information graph about the President’s Administration’s spending.

The politics section, he says, had articles with titles like: “For profit’s sake: how a deputy can become a millionaire”; “Three out of five: Viktor Yanukovych’s main achievements during his presidency”; “The President’s profile: three years of Viktor Yanukovych’s rule: facts and figures; as well as “Dear President” – on what the money which is spent on Yanukovych’s upkeep could be spent on.

Nayem says that the information disappeared from the site on the personal instruction of Editor Yana Moiseyenkova who was appointed to the post in November last year.

The report says that there is an issue from 21 February in the cache, but if you try to open it, you get a 404 mistake message.