OSCE Representative concerned by magnitude of violence against journalists in Ukraine
VIENNA, 2 December 2013 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today expressed her concern by the magnitude of violence against members of the media at the demonstrations in Kyiv.
“I am especially concerned that in most of the cases, the beatings were reportedly conducted by the law enforcement officers who attacked the journalists and disregarded their press identification. Violence against journalists cannot be tolerated”, Mijatović wrote in a letter to OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara.
Mijatović reiterated the call to the Ukrainian authorities to take urgent action to halt the violence against media and to swiftly launch investigation into these attacks.
According to information available to the Representative’s office more than 40 journalists representing national and international media outlets, including Ukrainskaya Pravda, 5 Kanal, 1+1, Euronews, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press, The New York Times, were physically assaulted and severely injured while covering the public protests in Kyiv.
They include, among others: Dmitriy Larin -Ukrainskaya Pravda; Mustafa Nayyem - Hromadske.tv, Nataliya Zhijko, Yurii Usik, Ivan Nakonechniy - 5 Kanal, Roman Kupriyanov – Euronews, Gleb Garanich – Reuters, Sergei Supinskiy - Agence France-Presse, Sergei Chuzavkov - The Associated Press, Joseph Sywenskyj - The New York Times, Tomasz Piechala – Eastbook, Oleksandr Perevoznik – Liga Business Inform, Valeriya Burlakova, Stanislav Kozlyuk – Ukrainskii Tizhden’, Max Levin – LB.ua, Johannes Wamberg Andersen – Danish freelance journalist, Maxim Kudimets – Insider, Pawel Pieniazek – Polish freelance journalist, Anton Chernyshov – Independent Journalist Union, Denis Dan’ko and Dmitriy Volkov – 1+1, Yaroslav Galata – Demokratichna Ukraina, Mikhail Zagorskii – Zhitomir.info, Dmitriy Kachura – Kommentarii, Yevgenii Golovatyuk – Ukrainskiye Novini, Oleg Khavruk – Comments.ua, Sergei Dolzhenko – European Pressphoto Agency, Yevgenii Feldman – Novaya Gazeta, Yurii Butusov – Censor.net, Emin Kalantarov – Lifenews, Sergei Polezhaka – freelance journalist, Yevgenii Maloletka – Unian, Valeriy Kolosyuk – Aratta.Vikno v Ukrainu, Sergei Yurchenko – Novoross.info.
The Representative’s previous statement is available at //www.osce.org/fom/109091.