Sacked Editor Of Ukraine English-Language Weekly Rehired After Strike

Kyiv Post owner Mohammad Zahoor

KYIV -- The chief editor of the "Kyiv Post" whose sacking last week prompted a strike by staff is to return to the English-language weekly under an agreement reached with its owner, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.

Brian Bonner was sacked on April 15 over an interview with Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk that Bonner refused to spike after a request by the "Kyiv Post" owner, British national Mohammad Zahoor.

Staff members went on strike to demand Bonner's reinstatement, saying his sacking interfered in the newspaper's independence.

In a statement on the "Kyiv Post" website on April 20, staff members and Zahoor say the two sides have reached an amicable, "tentative" agreement to resolve the situation.

Under the agreement, Bonner will be a member of a four-person editorial board with Roman Olearchyk, Katya Horchynska -- currently deputy editors -- and James Marson, the paper's business editor.

Zahoor told journalists today that the whole story was "just a misunderstanding and everything is okay now."

The journalists also announced on their Facebook page that they will make public Zahoor's telephone conversation today with the "Kyiv Post" journalists.

Zahoor, a Briton of Pakistani descent, bought the newspaper for $1.1 million in 2009. Zahoor has business ties to eastern Ukraine's Donetsk mining region.

The "Kyiv Post" was the first English-language newspaper in Ukraine. It was established in 1995 by American Jed Sunden.

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