08 February 2014, 09:29
M.Tomenko attached attention to the results of monitoring obstruction of journalists’ professional activity which has been carried out by the Committee for the last couple of months, and stressed that “Unfortunately, control over this situation by the Committee reduces to tracing the process of opening criminal cases and to actually the facts of opening such cases. We still do not have an opportunity to identify those members of special units who were committing wrongful acts by obstructing journalists’ professional activity or by intentionally causing them bodily harm. The reason for such status of our control over the situation lies in absence of understanding and necessary support on the part of leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and its special units.”
The Chairman of the Committee also announced his suggestion to establish an investigation team involving international experts that “would bring consideration of the issues on obstruction of journalists’ professional activity and their beating, particularly during coverage of events at the Euromaidan, to a logical conclusion.”
Mykola Tomenko and Nils Muiznieks exchanged thoughts about insurance of objectivity when covering events at the Euromaidan, discussed the prospects of introducing public television in Ukraine and denationalization of mass media, and they also discussed the status of the freedom of speech and information in the Internet. M.Tomenko claimed “The Internet should further remain a territory of freedom and free exchange of information, any attempts to limit this freedom by adopting respective legislative acts would face active contraction on the part of both Ukrainian MPs and civil society of Ukraine.”