Ombudsperson demands SBU investigate publication of journalist’s personal data
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska demands the Security Service of Ukraine investigate the publication of personal data of Yaroslav Bondarenko, the journalist of the program “Schemes: Corruption in Details.”
Earlier, the media published the photos of passport and accreditation card of the journalist who filmed an MP.
According to Natalia Sedletska, the program host, Bondarenko wanted to film the meeting of MP Oleksandr Hranovsky with influential people. A guard of an MP (from among SBU officers) detained the journalist and took a picture of his documents. Thereafter, they were released on the Internet. Sedletska added that currently Hranovsky was trying to ban the video with him from publishing through the courts.
The Ombudsperson offered the Security Service conducting an internal investigation concerning the legal basis of actions of its employee.
Lutkovska also appealed to the journalists with the request to respect the balance between the right to privacy and freedom of expression.
“In this case, the publication of photos of the person’s documents is excessive and disproportionate intervention in private life of the person for the purposes pursued by the mentioned article. The demonstrate of ID card, confirming the status of a journalist, can be fully justified, given the facts presented in the article. However, the publication of a passport with open (not anonymized) personal data of the journalist is clearly excessive and disproportionate intervention in his private life,” she stressed.
