Andriy Shevchenko (politician)

Andriy Shevchenko (Ukrainian: Андрій Шевченко) (born 10 June 1976) is the Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada since September 2015. He is also a prominent Ukrainian journalist and civil activist and a former member of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament.

This article is about journalist and politician. For the footballer and politician, see Andriy Shevchenko.
Andriy Shevchenko
Андрій Шевченко
Ukraine Ambassador to Canada
Assumed office
24 September 2015
PresidentPetro Poroshenko
Volodymyr Zelensky
Preceded byVadym Prystaiko
People's Deputy of Ukraine
In office
25 May 2006 – 27 November 2014[1]
Personal details
Born (1976-06-10) 10 June 1976
Hvizdets, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
(now Hvizdets, Ukraine)
NationalityUkraine
Political partyYulia Tymoshenko Bloc[2]
Spouse(s)Hanna Homonai[3]
Children1 daughter, Marichka (born in 2004)[3]
ResidenceKyiv, Ukraine
Alma materKyiv National Taras Shevchenko University[3]
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionJournalist[3]
Websitehttp://rada.gov.ua

Background

Shevchenko was born in the town of Hvizdets, near Kolomyia, in Ukraine (at that time - the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union), and spent his youth in Fastiv, near Kyiv. In 1999, he received his master's degree from the Institute of Journalism at Kyiv University; he also studied political science and economics at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Journalism

Shevchenko has worked as a multi-media journalist since 1994 for the 1+1 TV Channel, Novyi Kanal, Radio Voice of America and others.

Under the administration of President Kuchma, Shevchenko was one of the leaders of the journalists' movement against censorship. In 2002 he left Novyi Kanal under political pressure. Later in 2002 he established Kyiv Independent Media Union and was elected its first chairman.

In 2003 Shevchenko introduced his idea of creating the Channel of Honest News (Канал чесних новин). The 5th Channel, a 24-hours-day news channel, was the only network not controlled by the government. It eventually played a key role during the Orange Revolution of 2004. Shevchenko was the editor-in-chief of the channel and a news presenter.

In 2005, after the Orange Revolution, Shevchenko was appointed vice-president of the National Television Company of Ukraine, but left his position in six months after the government refused to transform the state broadcaster into a public broadcasting system. He is now president of the Center for Public Media, an NGO promoting public broadcasting in Ukraine.

In 2005 Shevchenko received The Press Freedom Award from Reporters Without Borders (Austria, 2005). He also received a number of Ukrainian journalistic awards, including The Best News Presenter, The Best News Program, The Best Documentary ('Teletriumph', 2005).

Politics

Shevchenko successfully ran for the Ukrainian Parliament in 2006, 2007, and 2012 with Yulia Tymoshenko's party 'Batkivshchyna'. In the elections of 2006 and 2007 he was ranked 5th in the party lists of Yulia Tymoshenko's Block, and in 2012 he was ranked 33rd in the party list of the United Opposition.

In 2006 Shevchenko was elected the Ukrainian parliament's Free Speech Committee Chairman and became the youngest ever Committee chairman to serve in the Ukrainian Parliament. He was reelected the Free Speech Committee Chairman in 2010. After the election of 2012 Mr. Shevchenko was elected First Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Committee.

Shevchenko is the author of the Ukrainian Law on Access to Public Information, which was adopted in 2011 and is credited with strengthening civil freedoms and the free flow of information in the country. He is also one of the authors of the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations.

Mr. Shevchenko was an active participant of Euromaydan - mass protests of 2013-14 that brought down the regime of Victor Yanukovich.

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was not re-elected into parliament; because he placed 20th on the electoral list of Batkivshchina and the party won 17 seats on the electoral list and 2 constituency seats.[4][5]

In September 2015, Shevchenko was appointed Ukrainian ambassador to Canada.[6]

gollark: Computers are great because they can keep my desk warm.
gollark: I rarely have enough pockets.
gollark: This is an uncool thing which I think is mostly just put in by lazy authors/gamedevs for balance.
gollark: Not because those are impossible to automate but because if someone does automate them I will likely have bigger issues than "oh no, I no longer have a job".
gollark: Anyway, I figure I should be *relatively* safe from automation if I work in somewhat creative technical fields and/or designing automation systems myself.

References
  1. Five factions form Verkhovna Rada coalition, Interfax-Ukraine (27 November 2014)
    Poroshenko guesses parliamentary coalition to be slightly larger, Interfax-Ukraine (27 November 2014)
    Governing coalition formed in parliament, UNIAN (27 November 2014)
  2. (in Ukrainian)Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc election list Archived 2011-06-07 at the Wayback Machine, Central Election Commission of Ukraine
  3. (in Ukrainian) Biography Archived 2010-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, www.vlada.kiev.ua
  4. Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament Archived November 12, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Ukrinform (8 November 2014)
    People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC Archived November 12, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
    Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
  5. (in Ukrainian) Full electoral list of "Fatherland" Archived 2014-09-15 at the Wayback Machine, TVi (15 September 2014)
  6. Weekly, Christopher Guly / Special to The Ukrainian. "Ukraine's ambassador to Canada promotes trade deal between 'symbol' and 'new frontier' of the free world". The Ukrainian Weekly.
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