Independent media trade union demands to explain ban on entry for foreign journalists

The sanctions were imposed on a number of well-known European journalists and one media owner from Hungary.

The Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, which are members of the International Federation of Journalists, released the statement demanding that President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko explain imposition of sanctions on the international journalists.

As known, the journalists of well-known European media and a media owner from Hungary were put on the list to prohibit the persons involved in separatist activities and officials of the Russian Federation from entering the territory of Ukraine.

“Society needs to know whether it is the traditional negligence and error in the bureaucratic system of information transmission between high-ranking officials or the deliberate policy of the government against ‘inconvenient’ foreign media people,” reads the statement.

As UNIAN reported earlier, OSCE representative on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatovic, said that putting foreign journalists on the list was “a serious threat to freedom of information gathering” and called on the President of Ukraine to remove them from the list.

Information Policy Minister of Ukraine Yuri Stets promised to submit changes to the list at the next meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, “At the next meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, I’ll submit the proposals, elaborated by the working group involving the experts of the Ministry and head of the public council at the Information Policy Ministry Olha Skrypnyk.”

The Minister noted that the journalists, who adhered to professional standards, would not be on that list.

As the Government portal reports, the parliamentary committee on human rights, freedom of expression and information policy unanimously supported the bill on amendments to the Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “On Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons” (on grounds for issuance of residence permits to representatives of foreign media). The bill is intended to make the procedure of issuance of a residence permit more transparent and regulated. The Ukrainian Parliament is recommended to pass these changes as a basis and as a whole.