Two journalists announced on Aug. 1 that they will leave Forbes Ukraine after a new chief editor was introduced to the staff, following a change in ownership of the business publication.
On Aug. 1, deputy editor of Forbes.ua and the magazine’s top investigative journalist both issued statements saying they plan to resign.
“This was not an easy decision… I gave two years of my life to this project which has been an unforgettable, amazing adventure, more than a job and a line in the CV,” wrote investigative journalist Sevgil Musaieva on her Facebook page.
She added that she considers it unethical to work for a magazine owned by a man whom she spent more than six months investigating.
The 27-year-old owner of VETEK energy holding Serhiy Kurchenko announced on June 20 that he had purchased UMH Group, the Forbes licensee and one of the country’s biggest media holdings, whose assets also include Focus, Vogue, and Korrespondent magazines. The deal will come into effect in early 2014.
Kurchenko has made headlines recently for his unexpected entry into Ukraine’s highly politicized gas sector through VETEK, which is in talks to become an importer of Russian gas, a privilege only shared by state giant Naftohaz, billionaire oligarch Dmytro Firtash’s Ostchem and Metinvest, which is owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, according to the Interfax news agency.
“I specialize in (investigating) oil and gas. And this is one of the main businesses of Serhiy Kurchenko,” Musaieva said. She added that after her investigative piece on Kurchenko was published, called “The gas king of all Ukraine, or who is Mr. Kurchenko?” she and her editor Oleksandr Akymenko came “under pressure” from the magazine’s management.
“I think it is wrong when owners of the magazine (Forbes) license say that we could have manipulated facts or become victims of someone’s business interests,” Musaieva said.
Deputy editor of Forbes.ua Oleksandr Akymenko said that “the purchase of Forbes Ukraine by a person with the last name of Kurchenko is my personal tragedy as well.”
“The deal took away the core value of Forbes – its honesty. One cannot look into the eyes of readers when they have that shadow looming over him. Moreover, it contradicts the substance of the magazine – after all, this is a magazine about entrepreneurship, not about wild capitalism,” Akymenko wrote on his Facebook page.
Previously Forbes Ukraine chief editor Vladimir Fedorin wrote in an article that he would quit his post as of Oct. 1, despite having a valid contract until December. He also wrote he suspected the sale of UMH was made to silence journalists ahead of the upcoming presidential elections in 2015 and to burnish the new owner’s reputation.
Mikhail Kotov, a Russian citizen and former chief editor of Gazeta.ru news site, was named to take over as a chief editor on July 29.
Fedorin’s accusations were brushed aside in a June 21 statement by Forbes Media Senior Executive Miguel Forbes, who said the purchase would “open new opportunities for Forbes Ukraine.”
In past months Forbes Ukraine published numerous hard-hitting reports, notably on public tenders won by President Viktor Yanukovych’s oldest son, Oleksandr, as well as numerous investigations into the gas and energy sector.
Focus magazine estimated that Serhiy Kurchenko is worth “at least $650 million,” placing him 30th on the list of Ukraine’s 200 Richest.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected].
