Libel Warriors
Be careful what you say or write about two Ukrainian billionaires, Rinat Akhmetov and Dmytro Firtash. If they really take offense, they might file a libel lawsuit against you in London.
“The Ukrainian incident,” as local experts refer to it, came to nothing also in a literal sense. Stories about the controversy have been scrubbed from public view.
Within weeks, the original investigative article “International Intrigue: Lincoln Chafee Consults Controversial Ukrainian Billionaire” disappeared from the GoLocalProv website. Also missing was the audio file of the radio show featuring Kuzio, the Ukrainian-focused political analyst who publicly discussed the controversy surrounding Akhmetov. Two related news items also disappeared from the website.
Josh Fenton, publisher of GoLocalProv, told the Kyiv Post on Nov. 24 that the articles disappeared for technical reasons. But the Akhmetov’s articles still hadn’t reappeared months later. The representatives of 630 WPRO radio station wouldn’t return the Kyiv Post’s repeated requests to comment.
