20 Jul 2017 | Campaigns -- Featured, media freedom featured, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]His Excellency Petro Poroshenko
President of Ukraine
11 Bankova Street
Kiev 01220
Ukraine
CC: Yuriy Stets, Minister of Information Policy
Dear President Poroshenko,
Pavel Sheremet (Photo: Ukrainska Pravda)
We are writing as active partners of the Council of Europe’s Platform to protect journalism and safety of journalists to urge you to ensure that Ukrainian investigating authorities carry out a thorough, independent, and effective investigation into the murder a year ago in Kiev of prominent Belarusian-born journalist Pavel Sheremet.
Sheremet’s killing in a car bombing in Ukraine’s capital city on July 20, 2016, cast a chill over the country’s press corps, and the ongoing impunity for those behind the crime has continued to affect journalists’ ability to cover sensitive subjects.
The current investigation by Ukrainian authorities, including the General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO), National Police, and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), has produced no results a year after the killing, as confirmed by Committee to Protect Journalists’ recent report, Justice Denied: Ukraine comes up empty in probe of Pavel Sheremet’s murder, which CPJ launched in Kiev last week. Moreover, as CPJ confirmed during its advocacy mission that week–including in a July 11, 2017, meeting with you—authorities currently have no suspects and no leading motive for the murder.
Independent, enterprising journalists in Ukraine work under hostile conditions filled with threats, harassment, and cyberbullying in retaliation for their critical coverage of government policies and the conflict between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian security forces in the country’s east. A number of journalists have said they work in fear, both because of the impunity in Sheremet’s killing and authorities’ failure to recognise the importance of a critical, independent press in a democratic society.
The report on Sheremet’s murder brought into relief a number of flaws in the official investigation that need to be addressed without delay. Crucial video evidence that showcased potential suspects or key witnesses of the crime surfaced only after Ukrainian journalists—not investigators—published it. No one has publicly identified two persons seen on security camera footage apparently planting the bomb under Sheremet’s vehicle, although investigators are in possession of a clear photograph of one of the individuals.
The report also found that police and security service officials have each alleged that the other destroyed video evidence; potential witnesses and Pavel Sheremet’s colleagues say investigators have not closely questioned them; and the national police chief first tasked with leading the murder investigation resigned, citing obstruction by her superiors.
Pavel Sheremet and his former Ukrainska Pravda colleagues were under surveillance in the months before his death, but it is unclear by whom, or why. We are very concerned for their safety, especially given that it remains unclear whether the fact of the surveillance is currently being investigated.
The confirmed presence of a former SBU agent, Igor Ustimenko, near Sheremet’s apartment the very night assassins planted the bomb under his car—and the ongoing lack of clarity about the reasons and circumstances of his presence—further raise doubts about the genuineness and thoroughness of the official investigation.
The authorities were unable to provide clear answers to pressing concerns, including to such basic procedural questions as who is in charge of the investigation or why the photo of the person seen on camera footage apparently planting the bomb has not been publicly disclosed. We hope that these issues can be addressed immediately.
Press freedom concerns, including the lack of progress in Sheremet’s murder investigation, were also raised during meetings between the partners of the Council of Europe’s Platform to protect journalism and safety of journalists, and Ukrainian investigating authorities on April 4-5, 2017.
We encourage you, Mr. President, to ensure that the investigation into Sheremet’s killing examines the possibility that Ukrainian officials—former or current—may have been involved. In order to do that, we ask you to consider independent oversight of this case, which is a litmus test not only for Ukraine’s commitment to press freedom but also for its adherence to the rule of law.
We are pleased to learn that during your July 11 meeting with CPJ, you made a commitment to invite an international criminal investigator to support the Ukrainian investigation into Sheremet’s murder. We hope that discussions on this initiative will take place between Ukraine and its international partners without delay, and we encourage you to immediately contact Ukraine’s partners, including the Delegation of the European Union in Kiev, in relation to that.
Lastly, we strongly urge you to take all measures to protect the space for critical and independent journalism, including by condemning the practice of dividing journalists into patriotic and unpatriotic; and by ensuring that reporters can work freely, without fear of reprisal, and with the full protection of the state. Publicly addressing Pavel Sheremet’s colleagues at Ukrainska Pravda on the anniversary of his murder, and making a commitment to defending their safety, would be an exemplary first step toward achieving that goal.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of these urgent matters. We await your response.
Sincerely,
Article 19
Association of European Journalists (AEJ)
Committee to Protect Journalists
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Index on Censorship
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
International Press Institute (IPI)
International News Safety Institute (INSI)
Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Ukraine” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:30|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fmappingmediafreedom.org%2F|||”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship monitors press freedom in Ukraine and 41 other European area countries.
As of 20/07/2017, there were 284 verified reports of violations connected to Ukraine in the Mapping Media Freedom database.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”94485″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://mappingmediafreedom.org/#/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
17 Jul 2017 | Digital Freedom, Mapping Media Freedom, Media Freedom, media freedom featured, News and features, Ukraine
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Ukrainian post control before separatist zone (Credit: Geoffrey Froment/Flickr)
Soon after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, full-scale fighting began between Ukrainian troops and separatists supported by Russia in the east of Ukraine. During active fighting in 2014, it was relatively easy for journalists to access to territories controlled by separatists.
“Accreditation was given quickly and without delay,” a Ukrainian producer who worked with international TV channels said. The producer, who requested anonymity because of ongoing work in the area, admits the risk for journalists was high because of the chaotic situation on the frontline and many of them faced detention by separatist militants. “I, like many, was detained and placed in a basement, but, fortunately, it only lasted for several hours,” he added.
Anna Nemtsova, a correspondent for Newsweek magazine and The Daily Beast, told Mapping Media Freedom that in 2014 she was abducted twice – firstly in the Luhansk region and secondly in the city of Donetsk.
“These were classic abductions,” Nemtsova said. “In Luhansk region, near Krasny Luch, armed militia wearing masks took our cell phones away from us and drove us in an unknown direction. In Donetsk, it happened near the morgue, where, according to our information, the militia had brought some of the bodies of passengers of the downed Boeing MH-17. Both detentions lasted for a few hours.”
Soon the situation with journalists’ access to uncontrolled territories would change for the worse. In February 2015, the Minsk agreements were signed and a ceasefire was established. The ceasefire agreement prompted the authorities of the two self-proclaimed republics to start monitoring journalists’ reports from the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.
“If they did not like the angle of coverage or some term, for example ‘separatist republics’, the name of a journalist was immediately added to the list of undesirable persons. The press service began to summon such journalists to ‘talks’ to express their dissatisfaction,” source who works as a local TV producer told MMF.
Nemtsova also faced similar difficulties. In summer 2015 she was told that the DPR press service did not like her reports and threatened to ban her, which later they said they did. “Their complaints were unreasonable, they were not about any errors in my report, but about the term ‘separatists’, which they claimed I used in my stories,” she said.
Thus, the monitoring of publications about the separatist zone in the media has led to the fact that from the summer of 2015 many journalists who tried to obtain accreditation from the self-proclaimed authorities began to receive refusals. Some reporters who managed to enter the territory of the self-proclaimed republics were detained and deported. On 16 June 2015, separatists from DPR captured Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Pavel Kanygin and handed him over to Russian security services (FSB). According to the journalist, they checked his documents and released him “in the middle of a field.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”black” align=”align_left”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Ukraine” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fmappingmediafreedom.org%2F|||”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship monitors press freedom in Ukraine and 41 other European area countries.
As of 17/07/2017, there were 282 verified reports of violations connected to Ukraine in the Mapping Media Freedom database.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”94239″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://mappingmediafreedom.org/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator color=”black” align=”align_left”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Over the past year, arbitrary refusals to enter the territory of the self-proclaimed republics have been quite frequent. In December 2016, Deutsche Welle’s correspondent Christian Trippe and his crew were barred from entering the territory of the self-proclaimed DPR. Journalists were trying to get to the territory controlled by DPR at a checkpoint near Marinka. Journalists had to wait an hour in a neutral zone between two fronts, while they were not allowed to return to the territory controlled by Ukrainian forces. The crew had received an authorisation from DPR press centre and had scheduled an interview with a spokesperson for the separatists. The journalists planned to visit Donetsk with Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. However, the militants did not let them through the checkpoint with the OSCE, citing the decision of DPR special services.
In 2016, the self-proclaimed authorities continued the practice of detentions and expulsions of journalists. In November, special forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic detained and expelled two journalists working for Russian TV channel Dozhd. Correspondents Sergei Polonsky and Vasiliy Yerzhenkov were detained by intelligence agencies on the evening of 25 November in Donetsk. Polonsky said that members of the self-proclaimed Ministry of State Security went to their apartment and took them to the main building of the ministry where they were interrogated. “Three employees of the Ministry of State Security were involved in the interrogation. They watched videos and deleted them. They also blocked Polonsky’s phone, broke Yerzhenkov’s phone and destroyed his notebook,” Dozhd reported. According to Dozhd, the journalists were not physically abused. “We experienced psychological abuse, but nothing more,” Polonsky said. Later, employees of the Ministry of State Security explained to the correspondents that their detention was a consequence of “false information” in the accreditation, which turned out to be a wrong phone number.
The Dozhd crew were accredited to work in Donetsk by the Security Service of Ukraine and by the Ministry of information of DPR. Journalists entered the DPR border on 24 November from Russia to interview Alexey Khodakovsky, former secretary of DPR’s Security Council. Previously, the self-proclaimed Ministry of State Security of DPR said the cause of the journalists’ expulsion was “biased” and “provocative” coverage of the situation in the DPR.
Local journalists and bloggers often find it even more risky to work in the separatist territories. In 2014, many journalists were forced to leave the territory, and are now working elsewhere in Ukraine. Over the past year, a number of arrests by separatists have been reported. The latest one is an incident with blogger and writer Stanyslav Aseev who disappeared in Donetsk. The blogger was reportedly detained by militants of the self-proclaimed DPR. Aseev uses the alias Stanislav Vasin and contributes to a number of news outlets including Radio Liberty Donbass Realities project, Ukrayinska Pravda, Ukrainian week and Dzerkalo Tyzhnya. He also runs a prominent blog via Facebook.
Donbass Realities project editor-in-chief Tetyana Jakubowicz said their contact with Aseev was lost on 2 June. That day, Aseev filed the latest report from territories held by separatists for Radio Liberty. Aseev’s relatives and friends confirmed that they also lost contact with the blogger. They questioned the self-proclaimed Ministry of Public Security of the DPR, but didn’t receive any answers. The journalist’s mother found evidence that his flat was broken into in Donetsk and noticed that some of his belongings were missing, including a laptop. On 12 July, Amnesty International reported that it learned that Aseev was being held by the de-facto “ministry of state security”.
Recently, several bloggers have been arrested in the self-proclaimed LPR. In October 2016 Vladislav Ovcharenko, a 19-year old blogger, who runs the Twitter account Luhansk Junta, was detained by separatists. Later, armed representatives of the self-proclaimed Ministry of the State Security raided his parents’ apartment, taking his mother’s computer. In December 2016, Facebook blogger Gennadiy Benytskiy was arrested in Luhansk. The blogger, who is known for his pro-Ukraine views, was accused of distributing of “extremist materials” online.
Journalists take risks even when they get accreditation from the separatist authorities. A leak by the website Myrotvorets in May 2016 led to the personal data of more than 5,000 journalists becoming available online. The link to the leak was published by some Ukrainian politicians, calling journalists who received accreditation “traitors.” Some of the journalists then received threats.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Mapping Media Freedom
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
11 Jul 2017 | Digital Freedom, Europe and Central Asia, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Ukraine
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Alongside the digitalisation of journalism comes the increasing danger of cyber-attacks on media workers. Reporters in Ukraine have faced a string of such attacks recently, including cyberbullying, the blacklisting of websites and ransomware viruses, as reports to Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project show.
“Online threats have become increasingly prevalent throughout Ukraine, and the climate of impunity that exists within the country prevents these cases from being taken seriously,” Hannah Machlin, the project manager at Mapping Media Freedom, said. “Index calls upon the Ukrainian authorities to investigate instances of online harassment more thoroughly and hold offenders accountable.”
Machlin urges Ukraine to “adhere to European press freedom standards by ceasing to censor the media, including pro-Russian websites”. Furthermore, she urges both the Ukrainian government the international community to “increase investments in digital security efforts”.
Hromadske TV journalist Nastya Stanko was the victim of a cyberbullying campaign. The harassment began on 10 June when Stanko received official thanks from Ukrainian Ministry of Defense “for significant contribution to the development of national war journalism”.
Katya Gorchinskaya, Hromadske TV executive director, claimed that the campaign against Stanko was a clear example of anonymous cyberbullying. “It’s not just a campaign against Stanko, this is just one example of harassment against journalists doing their work,” Gorchinskaya told Detector Media. “We saw many similar incidents last year, and this persecution is not only against those who spoke and wrote about the situation on the frontline, but also those who were writing about corruption in governance. Hromadske TV, Radio Liberty, Ukrayinska Pravda, Novoe Vremiya, OCCRP and all investigative journalists in general – they all suffer from such harassment.”
On 19 June, the Ministry of Information Policy released a list of 20 websites that it plans to ban, many of which are considered to be pro-Russian. These are: rusvesna.su, rusnext.ru, news-front.info, novorosinform.org, nahnews.org, antifashist.com, antimaydan.info, lug-info.com, novorossia.today, comitet.su, novoross.info, freedom.kiev.ua, politnavigator.net, odnarodyna.org, zasssr.info, ruspravda.info, on-line.lg.ua, ruscrimea.ru, c-pravda.ru and 1tvcrimea.ru.
According to the ministry, this list was compiled by experts and was sent to the Security Service of Ukraine. It believes that these websites violate Ukrainian legislation by fuelling ethnic and interethnic hostility, calling for the overthrow of the constitutional system, violating the territorial integrity of the country and violating legislation on decommunisation.
This comes after a 15 May decree by Petro Poroshenko, the country’s president, that bans a number of Russian media and social media websites including VKontakte and Odnoklassniki along with the search engine Yandex and the email service Mail.ru.
On 30 June Ukrainian news websites Korrespondent.net and Komsomolskaya Pravda were blocked for three days as a result of a ransomware attack known as Petya. A message on Korrespondent.net read: “Dear visitors, the site’s work was blocked by a massive virus attack. Our team is currently working hard to resume its work in the near future.”
According to Ukrainian police, 1,508 companies and individuals filed complaints about computers being locked by the Petya virus, which encrypts data on a computer and demands a ransom to release access. The attack is assumed to be a part of the 27 June large-scale hack which began in Ukraine, targeting the government, banks, enterprises and media outlets. Attacks also took place in Italy, central Europe, Israel, Germany and Russia.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Mapping Media Freedom
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
8 Jun 2017 | Azerbaijan, Digital Freedom, Europe and Central Asia, France, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Russia, Spain
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Over the last seven days, violence, intimidation, harassment and assault have been used to stop journalists from doing their job in the countries covered by Index on Censorship’s project Mapping Media Freedom.
Project manager Hannah Machlin explained why incidents in Azerbaijan and Ukraine are particularly alarming. She called the Azerbaijani incident “the most serious violation to press freedom in the past few days and it shows the situation in the region continues to be disturbing”.
The violation, which took place in late May, was against exiled Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, who was abducted and allegedly tortured before being taken across the border and put in pre-trial detention in Azerbaijan.
“This shows that Georgia can’t be considered a safe haven for opposition journalists and activists as well as reiterates the continued crackdown on press freedom in Azerbaijan,” Machlin said. The incident has been reported to the Council of Europe’s platform on the protection of journalism to enable that organisation to pursue discussions with the country’s representatives. Index on Censorship joined other press freedom organisations to request the Georgian government take action on the incident.
Machlin said the situation in Ukraine “indicates a complex issue in a war-torn area”. She said the “the report shows that there’s still renewed violent intimidation tactics perpetrated by the separatists against Ukrainian public broadcasters in Donbas”. She explains this is interesting because it shows that the separatists are targeting channels of free information set up by Kyiv and that Ukraine is even trying to install public broadcasters in the eastern region controlled by self-proclaimed authorities because the country “is trying to put a press presence back in there”.
29 May 2017 – Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was on his way home but never made it.
Mukhtarli was reportedly kidnapped from his neighbourhood after being forced into a car with his hands tied together. He was also beaten with a broken nose and bruises all over his head and face.
He then was transported back to Azerbaijan without a passport.
Mukhtarli was charged for illegally crossing the border, smuggling and resisting law enforcement and was also accused of being in possession of 10,000 EUR during the police search at the border.
One day later on 30 May, he was sentenced to three months in pretrial detention.
Mukihtarli’s wife and child in still in Tbilsi where they fled after escaping Azerbaijan in 2015 when Mukhtarli was threatened over his investigative reporting on corruption in the Azerbaijan.
26 May 2017 – Do TeBe, a new TV channel, endured a smashing of their front door by two unidentified assailants.
Police came to the channel, located in Donetsk oblast and are now investigating the incident.
Do TeBe’s deputy director Ilya Suzdalyev said “We are in the front line region, even what looks like hooliganism must be thoroughly investigated and perpetrators should be punished. Especially when it is, in fact, an attack on the public broadcaster, which was just created in Ukraine.”
Do TeBe TV channel is a regional branch of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine.
31 May 2017 – Outside the parliament building where the 2017 presidential inauguration took place journalists were assaulted by supporters of the new president.
Lidija Valtner, a journalist for daily Danas, was filming and interviewing an anti-government protester when she was assaulted by a group of supporters. Not only did they shove her around and try to take her mobile phone, but they also assaulted the protester she was interviewing.
Another journalist on the scene was reporting for Radio Belgrade when she was pushed and her equipment thrown to the ground.
Journalists for Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and Vice Serbia were also harassed with violence from the crowd whilst they were taking photos of the clashes. The police asked for their IDs after they witnessed a few men ripping a protest banner.
The assailants are still on the loose.
31 May 2017 – An unknown person called the editor-in-chief of the local news website Kurier.Sreda.Berdsk and threatened her and the editorial staff. Galina Komornikova’s outlet is located in the Novosibirsk region in Berdsk.
On the call, the individual said that “the Syrian theme is not one for journalists”.
The call may have been in response to a story published by the outlet the day before about the secret funeral of a Berdsk resident and Russian military officer. Yevgeni Tretyakov, who was killed in Syria on 15 May, may have belonged to private Russian military troops as he was not an official Russian army contractor.
The outlet then commented on the article saying “An unknown individual called us and promised to ‘come and handle us on behalf of law enforcement agencies’ following the article.”
Para-military private troops are not a new concept. Both Russian and international civil investigative groups and media outlets have been reporting evidence for these groups in the Syrian conflict.
A comment was also left by user “The Animal” stating “Actually, data on military casualties is classified, therefore, I would not be surprised if special people came to visit you to shake a bit, you and your sources.”
29 May 2017 – After elimination while being interviewed, tennis player Maxime Hamou tried to kiss channel Eurosport journalist Maly Thomas several times.
It was at the Rolland Garros tournament where Hamou grabbed Thomas and tired kiss her on the neck and cheek.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Mapping Media Freedom
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
