OSCE Envoy Warns Ukraine Over Treason Accusations Against Journalists
By RFE/RL
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)'s media freedom representative has expressed concern over an Internet post in which a Ukrainian official suggested that several journalists and other public figures were traitors.
“The publishing of a list, including names of journalists, accusing them of being traitors is unacceptable and dangerous," an OSCE statement on June 5 quoted media freedom envoy Harlem Desir as saying in a letter to the Ukrainian authorities.
This can have serious repercussions for the safety of journalists,” Desir wrote. "I strongly encourage the authorities to intervene and suspend such practices, especially those undertaken by government officials, given the sensitive and difficult environment in Ukraine at the moment.”
The rebuke referred to a Facebook post in which Larysa Sarhan, a spokeswoman for Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, listed about 25 people whose remarks -- in some cases criticism of the state regarding journalists’ safety and alleged impunity for crimes against the media -- she asserted were treasonous.
Sarhan's post and the OSCE representative's criticism came amid controversy over the faked killing of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko in Kyiv on May 29.
The list Sarhan posted included journalist Miroslava Gongadze, National Union of Journalists Chairman Serhiy Tomilenko, and former Odesa region Governor Mikheil Saakashvili, who is a vocal foe of President Petro Poroshenko's government.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to enlarge):
