Online media attacks in Ukraine - UK helps

The Insitute for Mass Information in Kiev is one of the organisations devoted to trying to keep free media alive in the Ukraine, as well as investigating the murder of Gyorgy Gongadze. Alongside the recent physical attacks on media there (see links below), in the past few days its website has come under attack from computer hackers.

These seem to have blocked the site at 23:00 GMT on Friday 29 October, two days before the first round of bitterly-contested Presiential elections, due on Sunday. The régime of Leonid Kuchma must fall under suspicion. On the other hand, it remains possible that this is a coincidental technical fault.

Either way, it's just as well that colleagues in the UK have helped IMI set up a "mirror site": see below, and please link to it from any kind of website that you can influence.

Mike Holderness