Vasyl Ilaschuk, a TV journalist, took charge of the Ukrainian National Television Company. As the Pershy Natsionalny (First National) president, he superseded Vitaly Dokalenko, who was dismissed (http://www.mediabusiness.com.ua/content/view/10601/42/lang,ru/) by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yuschenko, as the Delo (Business) newspaper writes.      

Vasyl Ilaschuk had been working as a TV newsman for about 20 years. He left the Pershy Natsionalny (First National) TV channel in 2002 year. Then Vasyl Ilaschuk had been working at the Studiya Televisiynyh Eksklyuzyvnyh Program (Exclusive TV Programs Studio) production studio, until in January 2008 he took an office of a presidential adviser on television and radio broadcasting.       

Andriy Shevchenko, a people’s deputy and a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko block (BYT), suggested that the dismissal of Vitaly Dokalenko could be motivated by the low rating of the Pershy Natsionalny (First National) TV channel. At the present time it ranks 10^th in popularity of the Ukrainian TV channels.        
But at the same time Vasyl Ilaschuk has been striving for the office of the TV company president, Andriy Shevchenko considers. “He tried to convince that he was able to manage the TV channel effectively. He got in touch with the President’s Secretariat Head and, maybe, with President Yuschenko himself on the matter of this appointment”.

Meanwhile, people’s deputies of Ukraine are not satisfied with the procedure of the former president’s dismissal. As Andriy Shevchenko noted, it is the Community Board of the Ukrainian National Television Company which is entitled to initiate a change of the UNTC president. The next step is the consideration of this question by the Parliament. Afterwards, the decision has to be confirmed by the President.  

”The Community Board of UNTC is still not formed. But, after all, we have the Supreme Council. Besides, the Cabinet of Ministers is the UNTC’s establisher. But the Dokalenko’s dismissal wasn’t agreed neither with the government, nor with the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine”, noted Andriy Shevchenko. He went back to October 2005, when the President of Ukraine signed the decree on the appointment of Vitaly Dokalenko the president of the Ukrainian National Television Company. Viktor Yuschenko promised then that it was the last time that he had appointed somebody to an executive position directly, but, unfortunately, he didn’t keep the promise.    

At the same time Kateryna Katsan, the chaiman of the UNTC’s media union, approves her boss’ dismissal. She said that the relationships between Dokalenko and the staff passed the point of no return. ”Many times my colleagues were left without bonuses for no explicable reason. There were no staff meetings held for a year or even more. We do not understand neither the TV channel’s concept nor its  direction of development. From the National TV channel we turned into an entertaining one, with the celebrity gossip program in prime time”.      

From www.delo.ua