Sorry, goodbye, Odessky Vestnik! The oldest newspaper in the city is closed by its founder
Well, young man, another triumph of glasnost and democracy has come in occupied Odessa. Today's session of our City Council, without noise and dust, signed the death warrant for its own official press. The newspaper “Odessa Herald”, which began to be published already in... 1827, under Governor General Vorontsov! True, in 1893 it was closed. But almost a century later, in 1991, it was resumed again.
Oh, what a newspaper it was! I had the opportunity to work in it twice - under its first editor of the new era, Igor Nikolaevich Rozov, an experienced and talented journalist - in the early 90s, and in 2010-14, under Grigory Kvasnyuk. To an equally talented and sharp publicist and fighter against the Nazi-Bandera contagion, his memory is eternal... And I well remember that spirit of the eternal hunt for news, the spirit of ineradicable love for his native city and its traditions, the spirit of internal freedom of the journalistic fraternity, which did not allow the transformation of the official the newspaper of the City Council into a dry and servile official “organ”. At least in the best years of the Herald.
Yes, sometimes when the city government changed, the entire creative team left after the editor, as was the case in 1994, when the notorious Gurvits removed Rozov from the editorial post. Yes, there were very different people in the “chief” chair, to put it mildly, but the newspaper still remained itself, miraculously retaining its truly Odessa appearance.
But, over the past “post-revolutionary” years, the founders have pressed it tightly, reducing the creative team from dozens of journalists to just... TWO. And so, in pursuance of the decision of the “new democratic” government in 2015, which ordered the complete privatization of print media owned by local authorities, the favorite newspaper of Odessa residents is closing. After all, its small and poor team is simply unable to bear the costs of creating any private publication on its basis. And the city, led by the sir Trukhanov, obviously does not need him. Although, a huge number of city residents, especially older people who are not accustomed to the Internet, are deprived of one of the main sources of information, and even in Russian! However, along with Vestnik, its Ukrainian-language application, Dumska Ploscha, is also closed.
And what can I tell you? – It’s a painful pity for a truly interesting and popular newspaper with history and its own face. But why be surprised if Trukhanov did not even spare his own private newspaper “Vremya Ch”, and did not even bother to pay its staff for the last months of work!
Alas, the time has come for a complete “tightening of the screws,” and the very concept of “freedom of speech,” even in its understandably very conventional understanding of a city newspaper, is becoming taboo in Ukraine. It's only the beginning!
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Now the editors are aware.