MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Russia is indignant at Ukraine’s expelling a Russian journalist and demands Kiev observe its liabilities in the sphere of the freedom of mass media, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
"Official Kiev continues its policy of hampering activities of the mass media and systematically supplements the list of foreign journalists banned from entry to Ukraine," the ministry said. "On August 14, Ukraine’s Security Service officers detained Tamara Nersesyan, a correspondent of Russia’s VGTRK broadcaster. After hours of questioning, she was taken to the Russian border late at night. She had to walk to the Russian border by foot."
These actions of the Ukrainian authorities stemmed from the decision of the Ukrainian Security Service, which qualified reports of the Russian journalist as a "threat to Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity," the ministry noted.
"Notably, this is not the first incident when Ukraine expelled journalists under such pretext. Earlier, in July, the Ukrainian Security Service expelled from the country a journalist of Russia’s Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 television channels, Maria Knyazeva," the ministry reminded.
Russia calls on "the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Desir, to pay attention to the Ukrainian authorities’ policy towards journalists and give a principled assessment to their activities," the ministry added.