Gulbanu ABENOVA, ALMATY, Jan 14 (THE GLOBE)
In the USA Embassy Information Service a meeting of the officer of the Committee for
Relation with OSCE of the USA
Senate with some representatives of the press has been held.&127;
Michael Ox has taken an interest in the opinion of the Almaty journalistsregarding the
situation in the Kazakstani mass
media during the presidential elections, whether there were problems in giving
information. One of the meeting
participants noted that two aspects in the mass media current situation may be pointed
out. The first is the emergence of
some anti-Nazarbayev newspapers. «For the first time official entities confronted rigid
criticism, while the critical to the
authorities positio of newspapers was winning popularity, but the process was broken
off», he said citing THE DAT
newspaper as an example.
Another trend - conservation of the Soviet-type newspapers: distortion of facts,
permission of fictions to present news
from the part advantageous to the authorities, etc. As an example, he cited the message of
the ITAR-TASS Kazakstani
service under the heading OSCE Mission Makes No Claims. The given information was
published by a number of
Kazakstani newspapers, especially by regional ones. The correspondent of the agency had
concluded that the OSCE
made no claims on the electoral process in Kazakstan on the strength of the fact that a
representative of the international
organisation had told him they had access to any documents they needed.
The meeting participants discussing the situation with mass media in the
Republic over the pre-election period concluded that the overall trend of the electronic
mass media, irrespective of their
property category, was that they are in a pro-President mood. TV cannot give unbiased
information to its audience, it
cannot afford any criticism of the acting president and authorities.
As if to printed periodicals, only minor part of them had been covering the course of
elections from neutral positions and
without any bias. After the conclusive and paramount question of the OSCE representative:
«your forecasts for near
future, what you think will be next? « participants’ opinions diverged.
KIEV, Jan 14 (AFP)
Ukraine will supply Pakistan this year with 105 more tanks, the last of the 320 T-80UD
tanks promised under a 1996 deal
worth 522 million euros (605 dollars), a Ukrainian official told Interfax Thursday.
The tanks will be delivered in two batches in April and November, the director of the
Malishev factory at Kharkiv, in
eastern Ukraine, Hrihory Maliuk said.
The tanks, which are the product of Soviet technology, are 99 percent manufactured with
parts in Ukraine, he said.
The Malishev factory intends to unveil an updated version of the T-72 tank, with guns
meeting NATO standards, at the
IDEX-99 trade fair in Abu Dhabi in March.
The former Soviet republic produced around 30 percent of armaments for the entire Soviet
Union before its
independence in 1991 — in particular missiles, armoured vehicles and combat aircraft.
By John Whitesides
WASHINGTON, Jan 14
(Reuters)
House of Representatives prosecutors Thursday launch their case against President Clinton
in the first presidential
impeachment trial since 1868, vowing to fulfil their duty to the country.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde continued to press for witnesses on the eve
of opening arguments in
the Senate trial, telling reporters that the 13-member prosecution team was debating
whether to seek testimony from
Clinton.
«I think we”re all interested in hearing from the president as a witness,» said the
Illinois Republican. «I don”t know
anyone who wouldn”t be interested. The question is whether we should call him or not,
and that hasn”t been resolved.»
White House aides said Clinton was unlikely to take the stand voluntarily, and it was
unclear if the Senate had the power
to compel his testimony.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said the House prosecutors were trying to impose their
will on the Senate and
defy «the bipartisan spirit which has characterized the Senate”s conduct of the
trial.»
Clinton, breaking his silence on impeachment for the first time since the trial began last
week, Wednesday said he
trusted the Senate would do «the right thing» in his impeachment trial.
«I trust that the right thing will be done, and I think in the meanwhile I need to work
on the business of the people,»
Clinton said as he met labor leaders to discuss issues to be raised in his State of the
Union speech next Tuesday.
Hyde, speaking on ABC News’ «Nightline» program late Wednesday, acknowledged the
«polarizing effects of these
events,» but said he was convinced the prosecutors were doing their duty.
«We”re doing our duty. Onerous as it is, it has a noble character to it, too, because
none of us get any political mileage
out of this at all,» he said.