Watchdog

KYIV -- Journalists at the English-language "Kyiv Post" have gone on strike to demand the reinstatement of chief editor Brian Bonner, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.

The newspaper's employees announced their strike on the "Kyiv Post's" Facebook page.

The journalists said the decision by owner Mohammad Zahoor to fire Bonner interferes with the newspaper's "independence." They said they will continue writing and editing articles online but not produce a print edition of the newspaper.

The striking journalists say Bonner's sacking is connected with his recent interview with Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, which Bonner refused to withdraw after a request by Zahoor.

The journalists also announced via Facebook that they would make public Zahoor's telephone conversation with the "Kyiv Post" journalists.

Zahoor, a British national, bought the newspaper for $1.1 million in 2009. Zahoor has business ties to eastern Ukraine's Donetsk mining region.

The "Kyiv Post" was the first English-language newspaper in Ukraine. It was established in 1995 by American Jed Sunden.

Read more in Ukrainian here

VORSHA, Belarus -- A Belarusian opposition activist in the eastern town of Vorsha has ended his two-week hunger strike, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Syarhey Malaletkin began the hunger strike on April 1.

Malaletkin, 49, told RFE/RL on April 15 that he was ending his protest because 15 days is the maximum term, he believes, that those who took part in the unsanctioned antigovernment protest on December 19 in Minsk should have been given.

On that day, dozens of demonstrators -- including some opposition presidential candidates -- were arrested and charged with organizing and/or participating in "mass unrest."

An estimated 15,000 people had gathered in central Minsk to protest the official announcement of incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's reelection.

Many of the jailed activists were later sentenced to multiyear jail terms.

Malaletkin told RFE/RL that although it was difficult for him to endure the hunger strike, he now feels better as he can say that he was not idle when important political events were taking place in his country.

Belarus's KGB has released several opposition politicians and activists over the past two months, asking them not to leave their hometowns while investigations on their cases continue.

They include former presidential candidates Vital Rymasheuski and Ales Mikhalevich; the leader of the opposition United Civic Party, Anatol Lyabedzka; charter97.org online chief editor Natalya Radzina; Andrey Dzmitryeu, the campaign manager for opposition presidential candidate Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu; and "Tell The Truth!" campaign activist Syarhey Vaznyak.

Mikhalevich and Radzina fled the country to avoid trial.

Nyaklyaeu was released earlier this year and put under house arrest, as was journalist Iryna Khalip, the wife of opposition presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau.

Sannikau and another opposition candidate, Mikalay Statkevich, remain in jail.

Read more in Belarusian here