Andriy Portnov, the former deputy head of the presidential administration during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency, has announced he signed a 3-year agreement on the management of Kyiv-based television channel News One (LLC News 24 Hours).
“Let me inform you that the day before yesterday I signed an agreement in Vienna on the management of NewsOne. The owner of 100 percent of the company’s charter Volodymyr Murayev transferred the TV channel to me for three-year management. Under the terms of the agreement, I have been authorized to manage the channel on a commercial basis,” Portnov wrote on Facebook on the evening of Aug. 29.
According to him, the agreement stipulates that during this period, the owner does not have the right to interfere in his activities or terminate the agreement unilaterally, and if the owner wants to sell the channel, he must first offer it to Portnov.
“I plan to show respect to everyone who is involved in the creation and operation of the channel, its management and journalists, to ensure their maximum independence and security from the pressure of law enforcement agencies and the presidential administration, access of all political forces and presidential candidates to the information capabilities of the channel,” he wrote.
News One was first launched in Nov. 2014 and then became one of the top television stations in Ukraine after a revamp in Aug. 2015.
Earlier, the TV channel was owned by independent Member of Parliament Yevhen Murayev, but the ownership structure changed in July 2018: Swiss-based joint-stock company MW Investment AG, whose ultimate beneficiary is Yevhen Murayev’s father Volodymyr Murayev, became the station’s owner.
In 2014 after the ousting of his ally ex-president Viktor Yanokovitch, Portnov left Ukraine, living first in Moscow, Russia, and then Vienna, Austria. He was wanted by the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine from January 15, 2015, on charges of misappropriation, embezzlement of property or possession of it by abuse of office.
The Ukrainian-controlled Crimean Prosecutor’s Office is now probing into Portnov’s involvement in the Supreme Council of Crimea’s activity amid the occupation of the peninsula. Later, Member of Parliament Andriy Levus (the People’s Front parliamentary faction) said that the SBU Security Service of Ukraine had begun an investigation into the possible involvement of Portnov in the annexation of Crimea by Russia as part of criminal proceedings on charges of high treason.
