NEW YORK, July 24. /ITAR-TASS/. The New York-based press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has criticized Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s initiative to ban some Russian journalists from entering the European Union and the United States.

“Initiatives like this do not only hurt the chances of resolving conflicts - they lead to their escalation,” Nina Ognianova, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator, told ITAR-TASS on Thursday, calling on Ukraine’s authorities to stop trying to censor news reports.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on Wednesday suggested imposing a ban on some Russian journalists’ travel to the European Union and the United States.

“Arsen Avakov has officially sent letters to President Petro Poroshenko and the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, suggesting that they initiate a ban on travel to EU countries, the United States and other states by a group of Russian mass media members, their top managers and owners,” the minister’s adviser Anton Gerashchenko told a briefing.

He said Ukraine should secure a ban that would forbid journalists and top managers of such Russian television channels as Channel One together with its Director-General Konstantin Ernst, NTV, TNT, Zvezda, REN-TV, Petersburg, the Rossiya group of channels and others to travel to civilized countries.