PARIS, April 09. /ITAR-TASS/. International human rights organization Reporteurs sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) is highly concerned by the increasingly frequent cases where the incumbent Ukrainian authorities ban the entry of Russian reporters and newsmen to Ukraine, Johann Bihr, the head of the organization's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk said in an interview with ITAR-TASS Wednesday.
He said Reporteurs sans Frontieres received a notice Wednesday morning that the Ukrainian authorities had denied entry to the country for four journalists, two of them working for the Kommersant Daily newspaper and the other two, for the Rossiya-2 television channel.
"We are highly concerned by the regular denials of an opportunity for Russian journalists to cross the border, since this contravenes Ukraine's international obligations in field of mass media freedom," Bihr said.
He recalled that freedom of travel is inalienable from freedom of the press, adding: "In this connection, we strongly call on the Ukrainian authorities to avoid such incidents in the future."
"Reporteurs sans Frontieres believe that the rules of entering the country's territory envisioned by the law should be observed by everyone but we also called on the Ukrainian government to do everything in its power for easing up access of foreign reporters to the country, as this is essential for an unbiased coverage of developments there," Bihr said.