The Presidential Administration of Ukraine blatantly violates freedom of expression through explicit instructions on how television stations may cover the news, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today that included examples of these directives. The forty-eight page report, “Negotiating the News: Informal State Censorship of Ukrainian Television,” documents the impact of secret instructional memoranda, known as temniki (from the Russian phrase, temy nedeli [themes of the week]), on the practice of journalism in Ukraine. Prepared and distributed by the Presidential Administration to top managers and editors of national television stations, temniki delineate which news topics to cover and how to present them in broadcasts. Non-compliance invites a wide range of informal sanctions, including tax audits, license cancellation, arbitrary libel suits, demotions, and pay cuts. The report comes on the eve of the 2003 European Union-Ukraine Cooperation Council meeting, one of the most important annual gatherings between Ukraine and Europe.