Зір повертається до українського редактора
10/12/2002 |
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1611456
Oct. 10, 2002, 9:49AM
Editor's sight is coming back
Ukranian blinded by acid attack
Associated Press
DALLAS -- A Ukrainian newspaper editor left temporarily blinded by an acid attack last year won't need surgery and may regain much of her eyesight, Dallas doctors said this week.
Tatyana Goryachova was editor of the only independent newspaper in her small town in Ukraine when a stranger threw acid in her eyes, an attack the journalist believes was in retaliation for stories the paper published about local government officials.
Ukrainian doctors told Goryachova she would need two surgeries, including a cornea transplant. But ophthalmologists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, gave her good news Tuesday: Her eyesight is better than she or her doctors knew and should improve over time.
"Acid injuries look terrible in the beginning and significantly affect the vision at first, but do well with time," said Dr. James McCulley, junior chair in ophthalmology at UT Southwestern who specializes in chemical burns.
"I am very excited by this positive news," Goryachova said Wednesday through an interpreter. "I was prepared for very serious surgery."
An anonymous donor had offered to help pay for any surgeries needed for Goryachova to regain her eyesight. The donor was contacted through Hal Foster, a journalist and educator visiting the Ukraine through the International Research & Exchanges Board, based in Washington, D.C.
IREX paid Goryachova's airfare to Dallas and has worked to support her newspaper with media resources.
The attack happened in January 2001 during the campaign for the mayor of Berdyansk, a resort city on the sea of Azov in southeast Ukraine. Goryachova's newspaper, the Berdyansk Delovoy, where her husband is publisher, announced it would give all the candidates equal space in its pages.
The move was controversial, she said, but they felt it was their job as the only independent newspaper to do it.
The paper received threatening phone calls, she said, and shortly thereafter her husband and one of the candidates were in an automobile accident that raised suspicions. Her husband, Sergei Belousov, suffered head injuries, and the candidate's arm was broken.
Two weeks later as Goryachova walked home from work, a man she'd never seen threw acid in her eyes.
The police investigated and closed the case when a drug addict confessed. Later, the addict said he was forced to confess.
Goryachova said she doubts her attacker will ever be apprehended. But that hasn't dampened her determination to bring a free press to her country.
Since the 1998 elections there, 11 journalists have been killed and 48 others have been seriously injured in attacks in Ukraine, according to Reporters Without Borders, an international organization based in France.
"A journalist is one of the most dangerous professions in the Ukraine," Goryachova said. "All of us are working on the edge every day."
On Tuesday, her mother received a phone call in the Ukraine from a stranger threatening harm to her family if Goryachova talked to U.S. reporters.
But Goryachova plans to meet with reporters and journalism students over the next few weeks to speak about the importance of independent journalism in the Ukraine.
"Otherwise we will never build a democratic society," she said.
Oct. 10, 2002, 9:49AM
Editor's sight is coming back
Ukranian blinded by acid attack
Associated Press
DALLAS -- A Ukrainian newspaper editor left temporarily blinded by an acid attack last year won't need surgery and may regain much of her eyesight, Dallas doctors said this week.
Tatyana Goryachova was editor of the only independent newspaper in her small town in Ukraine when a stranger threw acid in her eyes, an attack the journalist believes was in retaliation for stories the paper published about local government officials.
Ukrainian doctors told Goryachova she would need two surgeries, including a cornea transplant. But ophthalmologists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, gave her good news Tuesday: Her eyesight is better than she or her doctors knew and should improve over time.
"Acid injuries look terrible in the beginning and significantly affect the vision at first, but do well with time," said Dr. James McCulley, junior chair in ophthalmology at UT Southwestern who specializes in chemical burns.
"I am very excited by this positive news," Goryachova said Wednesday through an interpreter. "I was prepared for very serious surgery."
An anonymous donor had offered to help pay for any surgeries needed for Goryachova to regain her eyesight. The donor was contacted through Hal Foster, a journalist and educator visiting the Ukraine through the International Research & Exchanges Board, based in Washington, D.C.
IREX paid Goryachova's airfare to Dallas and has worked to support her newspaper with media resources.
The attack happened in January 2001 during the campaign for the mayor of Berdyansk, a resort city on the sea of Azov in southeast Ukraine. Goryachova's newspaper, the Berdyansk Delovoy, where her husband is publisher, announced it would give all the candidates equal space in its pages.
The move was controversial, she said, but they felt it was their job as the only independent newspaper to do it.
The paper received threatening phone calls, she said, and shortly thereafter her husband and one of the candidates were in an automobile accident that raised suspicions. Her husband, Sergei Belousov, suffered head injuries, and the candidate's arm was broken.
Two weeks later as Goryachova walked home from work, a man she'd never seen threw acid in her eyes.
The police investigated and closed the case when a drug addict confessed. Later, the addict said he was forced to confess.
Goryachova said she doubts her attacker will ever be apprehended. But that hasn't dampened her determination to bring a free press to her country.
Since the 1998 elections there, 11 journalists have been killed and 48 others have been seriously injured in attacks in Ukraine, according to Reporters Without Borders, an international organization based in France.
"A journalist is one of the most dangerous professions in the Ukraine," Goryachova said. "All of us are working on the edge every day."
On Tuesday, her mother received a phone call in the Ukraine from a stranger threatening harm to her family if Goryachova talked to U.S. reporters.
But Goryachova plans to meet with reporters and journalism students over the next few weeks to speak about the importance of independent journalism in the Ukraine.
"Otherwise we will never build a democratic society," she said.