Ukrainian admiral criticizes “biased” media coverage of international drill
UNIAN news agency, Kiev
12 Aug 05
Sevastopol, 12 August: The commander of the Peace Shield-2005 naval
exercise, Read-Adm Illya Chalyy, has criticized the biased coverage of
the peacekeeping exercise by some media outlets. The press service of
the exercise quoted Chalyy as saying that one of the objectives of the
exercises is to improve cooperation and deepen trust between
servicemen from different states, who learn to work together in
peacekeeping operations. “We are keen to help the public learn as much
as possible about international cooperation on the part of the
Ukrainian armed forces,” Chalyy said. “For this reason, we have
created appropriate conditions for journalists who report about Peace
Shield-2005,” Chalyy said.
“We are very sorry to see media reports that distort the peacekeeping
nature of the exercise. Reports about the landing of US special
operation troops on the Russian training ground in Crimea or about the
setting up of a NATO training ground misinform the public and foster a
negative public opinion,” Chalyy said.
He said that almost all servicemen of the US marine company that takes
part in the exercise are reservists who have nothing to do with
special operation forces. Chalyy added that the naval training ground
near the Opuk mount is rented by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It was
agreed with Russia that the exercise would use this training ground,
he said. The stage of the exercise involving the Opuk training ground
will be monitored by Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, Kyrgyz and Russian
observers.
Asked to specify which media outlets ran biased reports about Peace
Shield-2005, the head of the press service said that it was the
[Crimean pro-Communist] Krymskaya Pravda newspaper, the [Ukrainian
opposition] Inter TV channel and some Russian media outlets. The press
service of the Russian Black Sea Fleet said that their own monitoring
of the media had revealed nothing of this sort.
[Passage omitted: profile of the Peace Shield-2005]