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International Federation of Journalists condemns threats against journalists in Ukraine

In the spring of 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions on a number of Russian internet resources and TV channels, citing the need to protect the country’s national interests

BRUSSELS, June 1. /TASS/. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) condemn the increasing violence against journalists in Ukraine, the two organizations said in a statement issued in Brussels on Friday.

"We strongly condemn this intimidation campaign from public officials and we call on Ukrainian authorities to put an end to any act of harassment targeting journalists and representatives of journalists' organizations", said IFJ and EFJ General Secretaries Anthony Bellanger and Ricardo Gutierrez.

According to the statement, "the IFJ and EFJ submitted an alert on these threats to the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists."

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In the spring of 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions on a number of Russian internet resources and TV channels, citing the need to protect the country’s national interests. In particular, Russia’s VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks, Mail.ru and Yandex companies, the RBC, TV Tsentr, NTV Plus, VGTRK and Zvezda TV companies were banned for three years, as well as the Kaspersky Lab and Dr.Web anti-virus providers.

On May 15, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) carried out a large-scale operation against RIA Novosti Ukraine staff members, accusing them of high treason. The news agency’s Chief Editor Kirill Vyshinsky was detained and taken to the city of Kherson, where the city court arrested him for 60 days. On June 1, an appeals court rejected an appeal against his arrest.

On May 24, 2018, Kiev’s renewed sanctions blacklist was published on Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s website, which includes Russia’s Rossiya Segodnya media outlet and the RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency. Ukrainian internet providers have been ordered to block access to the following websites: россиясегодня.рф, sputniknews.com, ria.ru, rsport.ria.ru, 1prime.ru, realty.ria.ru and rian.com.ua.

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