Helping a newspaper in the Ukraine

It's about 1:30 Central Time on Friday and I'm in the Houston airport waiting on a flight that will take myself and co-worker Steve Adams to the town of Sumy in the Ukraine.

We're working with an organization in Washington, D.C. - the International Research and Exchanges Board - that has exchange programs designed to help Ukraine on issues like education, civil society development and the media.

We're working with a newspaper called Panorama, an independent weekly newspaper. From what I'm told there is a certain amount of press freedom in the country, especially since the "Orange" revolution of several years ago.

But it is not as free as the U.S. And much of the media still has a government influence.

Later this summer, four members of the Panorama staff will be visiting Amarillo.

As wi-fi allows, I'll try to update our trip here.