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Pro-European protesters heading to picket Ukraine’s major television channels

Police have been guarding Kiev’s television center on Saturday

© EPA/ANATOLY MALTZEV

KIEV, December 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Pro-European protesters rallying on Kiev’s Independence have set out on a march to picket Ukraine’s leading television channels. Hundreds of people are heading for the buildings of the “1 +1”, “Inter” and the First National channels. Their aim is to support honest journalism and demand that television give an objective coverage of the situation in Ukraine. The action’s organizers have also called on the protesters to stage exclusively peaceful pickets.

Police have been guarding Kiev’s television center on Saturday. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reports that police have increased protection of the TV tower.

In the meantime, about 2,000 supporters of Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions are rallying outside the parliament’s building in Kiev, demanding that the opposition start a constructive dialogue with the country’s legal authorities.

The participants in the rally have gathered near a stage mounted off the parliament’s walls and are listening to deputies and activists who are addressing them regularly. Most of them have come from Ukraine’s eastern regions. Many demonstrators are holding tablets with the names of their native cities: Poltava, Yalta, Sudak, Nikolayev, Zhitomir, etc.

Music is filling the intervals between the orators’ speeches and news reports consisting of fragments of speeches and remarks made by the Party of Regions on issues that are urgent for Ukraine are run on huge monitors.

Judging from speeches, slogans and posters, the main demand to the opposition is to start a constructive dialogue with the authorities; sit down to discuss problems through negotiations, end the blockade of administrative buildings in Kiev and provide security in Ukraine. The speakers are explaining the need for meeting each of the requirements and are citing extracts from Friday’s interview with Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov.

Wet snow has been falling and cold wind has been blowing in Kiev since Saturday morning. Many people rallying outside the parliament’s building have stocked up with raincoats and umbrellas in advance. A field kitchen set up nearby is cooking buckwheat porridge with canned stewed meat and hot tea for the demonstrators.

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