14 reporters at Forbes Ukraine quit over censorship concerns

KIEV, Ukraine – More than one-half of the editorial staff at the Ukrainian edition of Forbes has quit to protest what they say is censorship imposed by the new management.

Senior editor Boris Davidenko said Wednesday that he and 13 other journalists resigned after the new chief editor rejected a previously approved project to investigate a top government official, First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov.

Arbuzov, an ally of Ukraine's president, is believed to have ties to the magazine's new owner, the young millionaire Serhiy Kurchenko.

Davidenko said the journalists were told the magazine was changing its coverage of a certain "important group of people."

The chief editor, Mikhail Kotov, denied the accusations of censorship, saying the journalists were simply biased against the new owner.