As tens of thousands gathered in central Kiev calling for the resignation of President Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian TV went off the air for "scheduled maintenance".

The protesters were commemorating the death of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, who they believe was killed for writing about government corruption.

He disappeared to years ago this week, two months before his headless body was discovered.

The opposition parties behind the demos in the capital Kiev and elsewhere say the president and his administration continue to suppress free media.

"The atmosphere of fear and the notion that there can be no alternative views on Ukraine's development is forced upon everybody," said a recent statement by the reformist alliance Our Ukraine.

Demonstrators wave Lenin portraits

News blackout

Ukraine has six national TV channels. Those that are not owned by the state are controlled by people in the president's entourage.

As protesters continued their march on Mr Kuchma's headquarters, the channels led their evening news bulletins with the story of the president attending an economic forum in Salzburg.

The stations avoided panoramic views of the protest and showed no more than a few dozen protesters at a time. State TV focused on the traffic disruption caused by the protests, showing angry commuters and traffic jams.

Most of the mainstream press, which is owned by the same businessmen close to Mr Kuchma, glossed over the demonstrations.

The Russian-language Segodnya played down the scale of the demonstrations: "The number of the protesters gathered - about 15,000-20,000 - was less than the opposition promised to summon for the 'Rise, Ukraine' event," the paper said.

The president should put his own house in order before giving advice to civilized Europe

Vecherniye Vesti

"The lads in uniform were ready for the possible 'disputes' with the agitated protesters, but even they were resting in the buses tucked away in the courtyards of central Kiev."

The conservative Den newspaper, linked to the head of the national security council, confined its story to a factual account of the protest, without any comment.

Government 'scared'

The independent media, like Gongadze's Ukrainska Pravda web site, are confined to the internet. Some rely on the funding of the wealthier members of the opposition, such as Ukraine's former gas supremo, Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko's Vecherniye Vesti derides the coverage of the demonstrations.

"The country woke up to find all the six national channels shut for maintenance. This is how the scared government welcomed the nationwide protest action."

It goes on to question Kuchma's sudden absence from the capital.

It looks like the rallies are set to continue beyond 16 September

Holos Ukrayiny

"The president should put his own house in order before giving advice to civilized Europe. Instead, he simply fled, as did the interior minister, Yuri Smyrnov."

The paper condemns other pressure tactics used by the government.

"Protest actions, even the most radical ones gathering hundreds of thousands, happen from time to time throughout the world. But do governments cancel bus and train schedules, set up wartime roadblocks or stop national TV broadcasting? Speaking at a respectable forum, the Ukrainian president demonstrated his own savage methods to the entire world."

Despite their powerful owners, some of the official media are also beginning to doubt the wisdom of using such tactics.

"It was not the best day to schedule TV maintenance for," ventures the conservative Den newspaper, linked to the head of the national security council.

And some admit the protests aren't over.

"It looks like the rallies are set to continue beyond 16 September," says the parliamentary Holos Ukrainy. "The protesters are signing up to stay for at least a week."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.