Ukrainian journalists who died while carrying out their duties will be commemorated in a special ceremony at the Volodymyr Cathedral Church in Kyiv on September 16, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.
The Independent Media Labor Union in Kyiv (KNMP) said on September 15 that September 16 was chosen because it was on that date 11 years ago that Ukraine's most prominent investigative journalist, Heorhiy Gongadze, was kidnapped. His headless body was found two months later.
Oleksiy Pukach, the former head of the Criminal Investigation Department at the Interior Ministry's foreign surveillance unit, is currently on trial for Gongadze's murder.
Other churches in Kyiv will also hold services to commemorate journalists, KNMP representatives said on September 15.
An "Evening in memory of Heorhiy Gongadze" will be held the same day on Kyiv's Independence Square. Activists then will march to the building housing the Ukrainian president's office, where the names of all journalists who were either killed or whose deaths raise doubts and questions will be read aloud, followed by one minute of silence.
The KNMP says 63 journalists have been murdered or died in suspicious circumstances since Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The overwhelming majority of the cases have not been solved.
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