/16

Ah ben non !

Ukraine’s ban of foreign journalists ignites international ire
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraines-ban-of-foreign-journalists-ignites-international-ire-398113.html

Prominent foreign journalists briefly found themselves in the company of Kremlin cheerleader and Chechen strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Ukraine’s recently released list of sanctioned individuals.

The move ignited such a furor that President Petro Poroshenko immediately reversed the decision.

The nearly 400 sanctioned individuals, announced on Sept. 16 by the presidential administration, face travel and financial restrictions for one year. Those on the list were said to represent an “actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” according to the decree.

While figures like Kadyrov and separatist leaders Denis Pushilin and Igor Plotnitsky are justifiably on the list along with top Russian officials, several well-respected foreign journalists were inexplicably singled out.

Many expressed shock and anger that BBC journalists Emma Wells, Steven Rosenberg and Anton Chicherov were categorized as a threat to Ukraine’s national security – especially considering that Rosenberg had been attacked in Russia last year for investigating the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian authorities quickly switched to damage-control mode.

yssonkon, ou bien ?

In Reversal, Ukraine Removes 6 Journalists From Banned List
▻http://www.voanews.com/content/cpj-osce-blast-ukraine-on-foreign-journalists-entry-ban/2967882.html

Ukraine has removed six European journalists from its list of persons banned from the country, but a leading press freedom watchdog says all journalists should be removed from the list.
[…]
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomed the reversal, but said the Ukrainian government “should remove all journalists and bloggers from the list and allow them to cover the region freely.”

Earlier Thursday, The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe called for Poroshenko “to amend his decree and exclude journalists from it,” adding that Ukrainian authorities “should facilitate the work of journalists and abstain from creating administrative obstacles to the entry.”

The OSCE called the ban “a severe threat to the rights of journalists to freely collect information.”

Poroshenko signed a decree Wednesday that imposed sanctions on 388 companies and individuals deemed to represent an “actual or potential threat to the national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

The 34 journalists and seven bloggers originally included on the sanctions list come from Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and Britain. All but one are OSCE participating states.

Le titre a été passablement adouci, puisque l’original était

CPJ, OSCE blast Ukraine on foreign journalist entry ban

Foreign Ministry under fire for ‘incompetent’ sanctions list
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/foreign-ministry-under-fire-for-incompetent-sanctions-list-398216.html

The scandal over Ukraine’s now notorious blacklist of prominent international journalists has flared up yet again, as the Foreign Ministry digs itself in deeper in trying to justify the move.

Oksana Romaniuk of Reporters Without Borders on Sept. 18 published a list of journalists said to have been compiled by the Foreign Ministry in late February. The list, a photograph of which Romaniuk posted on Facebook after receiving the documents from an unknown source, apparently served as the basis for the sanctions list signed by President Petro Poroshenko on Sept. 16, which included BBC journalists Emma Wells and Steven Rosenberg, among others.

The Foreign Ministry responded publicly to Romaniuk’s post, reminding her on Facebook that the documents she published, under Ukrainian legislation, were meant to stay confidential – apparent confirmation that the documents were legitimate. The ministry also noted that the list in question had not served as the basis for the finalized sanctions list.

After the publication of the list of sanctioned journalists triggered international outrage, Poroshenko quickly backtracked and canceled the bans on six of them.

But now the entire list is under scrutiny, as the documents provided by Romaniuk exposed a worrying detail: several international journalists were apparently sanctioned for their “anti-Ukrainian coverage of events,” with nobody quite sure how such determinations about a reporter’s work are made.

The sanctioning of foreign journalists for “anti-Ukrainian coverage” follows “the Kremlin’s pattern of behavior all while they (Ukrainians) are declaring new principles,” Romaniuk told the Kyiv Post, saying the list was an “absolute embarrassment” for Ukraine at a time when Ukraine needs international support the most.

“We are having our lawyers prepare documents to send to the ministry to ask them who exactly decides what constitutes ‘anti-Ukrainian’ coverage, and what exactly the criteria are,” Romaniuk said.

“The best thing they could do now is admit that they made a mistake and promise that those responsible will be held to account,” she said, noting that she believed the list was hastily prepared at the last moment.

“Ukraine spent so much time preparing (to introduce) these sanctions … now they’ve released the sanctions and they are so badly prepared. I think they were designed for some internal reasons, to show that something big has been done ahead of elections,” she said.

The plan backfired, she said, because whoever prepared the list exhibited negligence, incompetence, and a complete lack of understanding of the media.