| Nov. 3, 2009 CONTACT: Dr. Trudy Hanson, 806-651-2800, thanson@wtamu.edu COPY BY: Rana McDonald, 806-651-2129, rmcdonald@wtamu.edu Ukrainian Publisher to Speak to WTAMU Students CANYON, Texas—Students at West Texas A&M University will learn what it’s like working for the only independent newspaper in the Ukraine when Yevhen Polozhiy speaks on campus at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex, Recital Hall. Polozhiy is a poet, writer, novelist and publisher of the Ukrainian newspaper Panorama. The newspaper has won many independent journalism awards and was selected from a field of 30 applicants to participate in an exchange program with the Amarillo Globe-News. During Polozhiy’s visit to the WTAMU campus, he also will speak to two different classes in the Department of Communication. He has been editor and publisher of Panorama, a weekly newspaper in Sumy, Ukraine, since 1998. It is one of three newspapers in Sumy, but the only independent one operating without government influence. Polozhiy and his staff were instrumental in assuring fair and open elections in 2004 as part of the country’s Orange Revolution. The staff has recently written articles about government officials building residences and other buildings on land in which they had no right to build. Work like this has led to the newspaper being burned by the government for reporting inappropriate information, and Polozhiy has been interviewed by government officials about the paper’s content. Polozhiy was born in the village of Terny in the Sumy region of Ukraine. He graduated from Sumy State Pedagogical University with a major in Russian language and literature. For more information about his visit to WTAMU, contact Dr. Trudy Hanson at 806-651-2800. —WTAMU— | 
