All news

Poroshenko gives instructions to take BBC journalists off Ukraine's blacklist

Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine's Minister for Information Policy said on his Facebook page that the list of media representatives falling under Ukrainian sanctions was ambiguous and had to be revised

KIEV, September 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has instructed the National Security and Defense Council to remove BBC journalists from the blacklist of journalists subject to entry ban and assets freeze in Ukraine.

The president said it to the UK ambassador at a ceremony in which newly appointed foreign ambassadors present their Letters of Credence. "Freedom of press is an absolute value for me," Poroshenko’s spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko quoted him as saying.

He also cited Poroshenko as saying the Council would make a separate statement on that later in the day.

Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian Minister for Information Policy Yuri Stets said on his Facebook page that the list of media representatives falling under Ukrainian sanctions was ambiguous and had to be revised.

He said he had discussed this with the leadership of the Ukrainian Security Service and officials from the National Security and Defense Council.

"I will submit proposals at the next session of the National Security and Defense Council," the minister said.

President Poroshenko signed a decree on Wednesday unveiling sanctions for one year against 388 individuals, including high-ranking officials and journalists from Russia and other countries. All of them are subject to entry ban and also assets freeze in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s sanctions list also targets 105 legal entities, including Russian flag carrier Aeroflot and around 20 Russian airlines that have been banned from flights, air haulage services or transits via the Ukrainian territory.

Poroshenko’s decree says those on the blacklist "threaten national security…promote terrorist activity and violate people’s rights, interests of citizens and the state."