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Expulsion of Russian reporters from Ukraine is attack on free speech — Journalists' Union

VGTRK Media Group journalist Tamara Nersesyan had been expelled from Ukraine under a pretext that her reports allegedly constituted a "threat to Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity"

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Expulsion of journalists from Ukraine is an attack on the freedom of speech, the Russian Union of Journalists said on Tuesday after yet another such incident.

Russia’s Rossiya-24 TV Channel reported earlier on Tuesday that VGTRK Media Group journalist Tamara Nersesyan had been expelled from Ukraine under a pretext that her reports allegedly constituted a "threat to Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity."

"We are confident that deportation of a journalist, regardless of his or her political views, is a direct attack on the freedom of speech," the Union’s press service quoted its secretary and member of the executive committee of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Timur Sharif.

The Union of Journalists "has repeatedly condemned deportations of Russian journalists from Ukraine" and "has been and will be ready, if need be, to use all its resources to protect Ukrainian colleagues deported from Russia," he stressed. "Luckily, according to our data, not a single such incident has been reported until today. We are confident none will ever take place."

Sanctions against journalists

Ukraine has banned most of Russian television channels: Channel One, NTV, TV Tsentr, Rossiya-1, Rossiya-24, TNT, Peterburg 5, Zvezda, Ren TV, LifeNews, Russia Today, RBC-TV, RTR Planeta and Mir 24. Ukraine has also slapped sanctions against the Russian television channels Dom kino, Russian Illuzion, Usadba-TV, Domashniye Zhivotniye (Domestic Animals), Voprosy I Otvety (Questions and Answers), Oruzhiye (Arms) and Istoriya (History).

A ban is also in effect on the entry into Ukraine by the heads of the Russian media outlets: editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda Vladimir Sungorkin, VGTRK Director General Oleg Dobrodeyev, Director General of Russia Today international news agency Dmitry Kiselyov, Director General of TASS news agency Sergei Mikhailov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia Today TV Channel Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of Expert magazine Valery Fadeyev, Editor-in-Chief of Russian Reporter magazine Vitaly Leibin and others.

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