Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper fires all employees

 

KIEV: Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper the Kyiv Post suspended publication on Monday after 26 years as its journalists accused the owner, a powerful oligarch, of "attacking" them.

Adnan Kivan, a construction tycoon who bought the Kyiv Post three years ago, said in a statement that the newspaper will close immediately "for a short time."

"God bless all of us. One day, we hope to reopen the newspaper bigger and better," Kivan said.

Kyiv Post journalists then released a joint statement on Facebook, saying that all the employees were notified that they were "immediately" fired.

Around 50 people lost their jobs.

They had earlier said that Kivan planned to expand the Kyiv Post and launch a Ukrainian-language outlet under the paper's brand, while also appointing a new hand-picked chief editor.

"We saw it as an attempt to infringe on our editorial independence," the statement said.

And the dismissal of the paper's staff, they said, was an attempt to get rid "of inconvenient, fair and honest journalists".