By Tim Vickery, Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, March 3, 2004

Pavlo Slobodaniuk, deputy head of the Ukrainian Broadcasting Authority, denied any confiscation, but said Kontinent was removed from the air for "broadcasting without a license," the Interfax news agency reported.

Deputy technical director Oleksander Demidev, one of the two arrested station employees, said that when he arrived to check on transmission problems, "the transmitter was already out of the room and switched off completely," Interfax said.

The move came two weeks after FM rebroadcasts of shortwave Radio Liberty were canceled by a private Ukrainian radio station after it demanded format changes, a move that led to claims of an official campaign to keep the Prague-based station off the air.

Alexander Narodetsky, director of Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service, told The Associated Press he believed Wednesday's action was part of a three-year campaign by authorities to get his service off the air. "Today, the voice is very strong and very clear, they will do everything to control everything," he said.

Kontinent general director Serhiy Sholokh said he would appeal to local courts and the International Court for Human Rights. Kontinent also ran programs by Voice of America, BBC, Deutsche Welle and Polish Radio.

Thomas Dine, the director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, denounced the closure, calling it "a blatant act in suppressing factual news and information ... Ukraine's name and its people are badly damaged."

The statement decried "the evolving pattern of pressure applied by Ukrainian authorities on independent media and freedom of speech as such."

President Leonid Kuchma's administration has come under increasing criticism from Western governments, human rights groups and journalists who accuse him of muzzling the press.

Ukraine's media environment has been tense since the 2000 death of Heorhiy Gongadze, an Internet journalist who crusaded against high-level corruption. His decapitated body was found in a forest outside Kiev. Opposition groups allege Kuchma was involved in Gongadze's killing, but Kuchma denies that.