Here is my latest article on the rise of press censorship in Ukraine since the election of President Yanukovych. It’s timely – this Sunday Ukrainians head to the polls to vote in the local council elections and international observers have noticed a clampdown on independent media and opposition leaders.

In the article and embedded videos, I interview Myroslava Gongadze, the wife of the murdered journalist Georgiy whose homicide caused an international scandal in 2000, and Ukrainian affairs expert Dr. Taras Kuzio. View the article as it originally appeared at the Pulitzer Center.

Ukrainian Journalists Face Uncertain Future

By Christina Maria Paschyn

In 2004 thousands of protesters swarmed the capital of Ukraine demanding that the country’s fraudulent presidential election be overturned. Dubbed the Orange Revolution, the movement swept pro-Western politician Viktor Yushchenko to power, whose victory brought hope to millions of democratic activists including journalist Myroslava Gongadze.

Her husband Georgiy Gongadze, an investigative reporter on government corruption, had been kidnapped in September 2000; two months later his decapitated body was found lying in a forest outside Kiev. Leaked secret recordings linked then-President Leonid Kuchma and other top officials to the homicide, who are heard discussing ways to silence the muckraking journalist. But the tapes’ authenticity was questioned, and none of the individuals on the recordings were ever brought to court.

As part of his campaign platform, Yushchenko promised to launch a legitimate investigation and finally solve the case for Gongadze and her family. Moreover, he swore to fully democratize the former Soviet nation and restore civil liberties for Ukrainian journalists who routinely suffered government harassment and censorship.

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Just published my latest article for the Pulitzer Center, on a congressional briefing that addressed the need to provide water, sanitation and hygiene instruction and facilities for school children in the developing world.

It’s an important issue – two out of three schools in the developing world lack decent toilets, according to UNICEF. The World Health Organization estimates that 272 million school days are lost each year due to diarrhea and some 400 million school-aged children worldwide have worms.

Read on: Stressing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Children in Developing Countries

Girl in Africa Carrying Jerry Cans Full of Water

Bjorn Lomborg, author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist”, has reversed his position on the ‘urgency’ of climate change. Although he always believed that global warming is real and is being caused by humans, he was critical of government spending and global policy initiatives to address this issue. His main thesis was that the human race should be more concerned with taking care of other issues, like AIDS research, malaria, poverty, etc.

Not anymore. Yahoo reports:

In a book to be published this year, Lomborg calls global warming “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and calls for the world’s governments to invest tens of billions of dollars annually to fight climate change.

Lomborg’s former foes in the environmental movement are so far unimpressed by news of his conversion. Calling him a “shrewd self-promoter,” Grist.org’s Jonathan Hiskes marveled at Lomborg’s ability to “play the media” in simply “adopting a position already held by millions of sensible people.” And Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Mike Childs told the U.K. Guardian, “It appears that the self-styled skeptical environmentalist is beginning to become less skeptical as he enters middle age.”

I helped interview Lomborg for TIME.com in 2007. It was my first video shooting/editing gig at the news organization, but unfortunately the video producers never added this lowly intern’s name to the credits. Still, if you’re interested in hearing Lomborg’s previous views, watch it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DT3FgtqZhQ]

The BBC is reporting that protesters have gathered outside the Google offices in Silicon Valley to denounce the internet giant’s proposed “net neutrality” policy with Verizon. The plan would create a two-tier internet system, the higher of which would feature “premium” content and users would be charged a fee. In other words, internet providers would be able to prioritize or favor certain online content over and others, and users would be forced to shell out money to access it. Essentially, it would dismantle net neutrality and the free and open internet we all currently enjoy.

This policy change could have negative consequences for journalists and independent news organization. I spoke with David Sohn of the Center for Democracy and Technology on this issue. Check out my article and video interview with him: What Net Neutrality Means for Journalists featured on the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting website.

You can also view this story under the Print tab on my website.