Andriy Shevchenko (politician)

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.

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).

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]