Ane Tusvik Bonde, Regional Manager for Eastern Europe and Caucasus at the Norwegian Human Rights House Foundation, called on the Ukrainian authorities to immediately investigate the murder of journalist Pavel Sharamet.
Between 1 January and 20 July 2016, 41 attacks on journalists in Ukraine were attempted, according to the international project “Mapping Media Freedom”. Tetiana Pechonchyk, Ukrainian participant of the project and the head of Human Rights Information Center, emphasises that a climate of impunity that prevails today in Ukraine is only fueling the aggression against journalists. She compares this killing with Georgii Gongadze’s murder in 2000. “The executors of Gongadze’s murder are in prison but the organisers managed to avoid responsibility, as the investigation failed to name and punish them. While such impunity exists, it will provide the fuel for future crimes and violence against journalists.”
Index on Censorship enumerates cases of attacks on journalists in Ukraine. According to the experts, about one-third of incidents occur in Kyiv, and about one-third of incidents happen due to the actions of the authorities. In addition, the number of cases brought before the courts and involving violations of rights of journalists increased – in the past year there were 11 cases, in this year there are already 12.
Tetiana Pechonchyk draws attention to the fact, that the Ukrainian Myrotvorets [“peacemaker”] website published the list of journalists who had accreditation in Donetsk and Lugansk, including names and personal data, and branded these journalists “terrorist accomplices.” This vilification of journalists led to many of them receiving threatening emails and phone calls. And in May the largest number of physical attacks on journalists happened – in Kiev, Kherson, Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Marhanets, Zirne.
On 13 June in Berdyansk journalists appealed to the prosecutor’s office with a collective letter, after the attacks on Yuh TV channel’s workers, attempted by group of people in camouflage with banners of “Army Of Dignity”. On 2 June the leader of this organisation Vitaliy Oleshko hinted in social networks that it can happen the same to Berdiansk TV channel, what happened to Inter TV in Kyiv (on 2 June unidentified masked men attempted an arson attack at the entrance to the Inter TV offices).
Sharamet was a well-known journalist. He helped to set up several independent media outlets in Belarus, and openly criticised President Lukashenka and the Belarusian authorities. He was imprisoned in Belarus for three months in 1997. In 1998, he moved to Moscow, working as an investigative journalist before moving to Ukraine in 2011. He worked as a journalist for independent news website Ukrainska Pravda and as presenter at Radio Vesti. He reported on political developments in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.
Tatsiana Reviaka, the president of the Belarusian Human Rights House said “His human and professional adherence to principle, uncompromising stand and authority are the reasons why he got in Belarusian prison, why he chose the difficult path of defending the freedom of speech in Russia, and why he left a bright trace in the Ukrainian journalism.”
Related articles:
Statement of the Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House on the tragic death of Pavel Sharamet
Human rights defenders insist on independent analysis of Eduard Palchys’s texts
Amnesty International issues a report about wiretapping of Belarusian activists
