The Sunday Show: Protests in Kyiv, Ukrainian-Jewish Relations and Interpol Against Journalists

✅ “Great Political Reform”: Protesters Camp Outside Parliament

On Tuesday, October 17, protesters gathered in the streets of Kyiv to demand the “great political reform” — an anti-corruption court, an end to parliamentary immunity, and electoral reform. After a day of demonstrations, some of the protesters set up tents and stayed the night. Clashes erupted with law enforcement. While the protests continued outside the parliament building, inside Ukrainian MPs voted to adopt the medical reform law on October 19. Hromadske speaks with CEO of Centre UA Inna Borzylo to find out what the protests are about, and Iryna Lytovchenko, co-founder of the Tabletochki charity, to discuss what the medical reform law means for Ukraine.

Inna Borzylo

CEO of Centre UA

Iryna Lytovchenko

co-founder of Tabletochki

✅ Kyrgyzstan Elects A New President

Last Sunday, Sooronbai Jeenbekov won a surprising first-round victory in Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election. The chosen successor of incumbent president Almazbek Atambayev, Jeenbekov benefited from the support of virtually the entire state apparatus. What does this election mean for Kyrgyzstan and democracy in the Central Asian country? Hromadske speaks with Bektour Iskender, co-founder of the Kloop.kg news agency to find out.

Bektour Iskender

co-founder of the Kloop.kg news agency

✅ Ukrainian-Jewish Relations After Maidan

In much of the global Jewish community, Ukraine is often stereotyped as a country of pogromists and anti-Semites. To some Ukrainians, Jews were responsible for communism. But The Odessa Review, a Ukrainian, English-language magazine of culture and idea, is taking a closer look at the realities of Ukrainian-Jewish ties — a particularly important subject after the 2014 Euromaidan revolution, when Ukrainians, Jews, and other minorities joined together to stand up for Ukraine’s European future. Hromadske spoke with Vladislav Davidzon, editor-in-chief of The Odessa Review, about his magazine’s latest issue on Ukrainian-Jewish relations.

Vladislav Davidzon

editor-in-chief of The Odessa Review

✅ Is Interpol Silencing The Independent Press?

On October 14, Ukrainian border officers detained Azerbaijani opposition journalist Fikret Huseynli at Kyiv’s Boryspil Airport when he was on his way to depart for Germany. The journalist, who holds Dutch citizenship, was wanted in Azerbaijan on an Interpol warrant. Huseynli’s detention marks the second case this month when an opposition journalist was detained in Ukraine on questionable charges through an Interpol warrant. Huseynli’s lawyer, Dmytro Mazurok, speaks to Hromadske about his client’s case.

Dmytro Mazurok

lawyer at the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union

✅ Ukrainian Documentaries Gain International Recognition

The 47th Molodist International Film Festival is currently underway in Kyiv. The annual festival showcases debut films from some of the country’s most promising young filmmakers and is one of the biggest events of its kind in Eastern Europe. In other film news, two documentary films set in Ukraine have recently attracted international recognition. One of the films, Home Match, funded by leading British newspaper The Guardian and The Filmmaker Fund, tells the story of a struggling Ukrainian female footballer who is torn between her family and sporting career. The other film, School Number 3 — prizewinner at the 67th Berlinale film festival — focuses on the lives of school children living through war in eastern Ukraine.

Hromadske spoke with both, Home Match director Alisa Kovalenko and School Number 3 co-founder Georg Genoux to find out more about their documentaries.

We also invited Ukrainian film director Nadia Parfan to our studio to discuss the Molodist film festival and Ukrainian documentary filmmaking in general.

Nadia Parfan

film director

Alisa Kovalenko

director of “Home Match”

Georg Genoux

co-director of “School Number 3”