The EFJ/IFJ has strongly condemned accusations by a Ukrainian MP that the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) was guilty of implementing “Russian media projects” and supporting anti-Ukrainian media. The astonishing claims came after the union opposed government raids on a prominent Ukrainian news website. The EFJ/ IFJ vowed to stand shoulder to shoulder with its affiliate in Ukraine in defending its actions in representing the country’s journalists and defending press freedom. The politician, Dymtro Tymchuk, a member of the People’s Front faction has claimed the NUJU leadership was “working against information security of the country”. He also accused…

The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) have backed demands for the Ukrainian authorities to publish the results of their investigation into the killing of award-winning journalist Pavel Sheremet – a year after his murder in a car bomb on 20th July 2016. On the anniversary of the killing the IFJ/EFJ joined their affiliates the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) in condemning the grossly inadequate investigation by Ukrainian authorities. The EFJ/IFJ also call on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fulfill his promise of incorporating an independent international…

On July 14, the prosecutors General’s office and the national police searched the offices of Ukraine’s Vesti media group in Kiev which holds Radio Vesti, the daily newspaper Vesti, and the news website Vesti-ukr.com. The raid was conducted as part of an embezzlement case against ex-Tax and Revenue Minister Oleksandr Klymenko. The whole quarter was blocked off, units of special troops and armored vehicles surrounded the building. Police officers completely obstructed the work of the editorial board. The chair of the Board of Directors of the Media Holding Vesti Ukraine, Olga Semchenko, explained on a Facebook post that the radio…

Update (20/06/2017): Representatives from the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) expressed today their deep concern for the safety and fate of Donetsk journalist Stanyslav Aseev. They call for Aseev’s immediate release. ————————– The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) joined their affiliates, the National Union of Journalists in Ukraine (NUJU) and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU), in demanding the Ukrainian authorities do all they can to find the journalist Stanyslav Aseev, known as Stanyslav Vasin, who went missing in the occupied part of the Donbass region on 3…

The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) have condemned the arson attack by unidentified assailants on the car of journalist Sergey Goos yesterday morning in the central Ukrainian city of Kamianske (Dneprodzerzhinsk). This is the latest case in a worrying and growing number of attacks against independent journalists in the country and was immediately condemned by IFJ affiliates the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU). The attack took place in the courtyard of an apartment building where Goos lives and the unions claimed was a result of recent reporting…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today, in Kiev, calls on Ukrainian authorities to comply with their commitment to respect freedom and pluralism of the media. The EFJ joined the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic to call on Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists to increase efforts to ensure safety of journalists on the frontline of the war in east Ukraine. The General secretary of the EFJ, Ricardo Gutiérrez, is in Kiev today to attend the international conference “Safety of Journalists: An Imperative for Free Media, Freedom of Expression and Public Order” organized by the Ministry of…

Safety of Journalists: an imperative for free media Conference co-organised by Ukrainian MFA, OSCE, Council of Europe, UNESCO, Institute for Mass Information. The general secretary of the EFJ Ricardo Gutiérrez will attend the meeting. He will present the outcomes of the Council of Europe Platform for the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists. Draft agenda: 09.00-09.30 Registration 09.30-10.15 Opening remarks (Moderator:  Mariana Betsa) Sergiy Kyslytsya, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Svyatoslav Tsegolko, Administration of the President of Ukraine Vaidotas Verba, OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine Dunja Mijatović, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Mårten Ehnberg, Head of the…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (FEJ/FIJ) have backed calls for Ukrainian reporter Roman Sushchenko to be freed following his arrest on 30 September in Moscow on charges of spying. News of his arrest last Friday only emerged after his family expressed concerns that he had not been in touch for two days and after he was spotted in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow by a human rights monitoring group. Neither the embassy nor his family had been informed. According to reports from NGO Open Russia, 47-year-old Roman Sushchenko, who has worked for Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform since 2002, told…

The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) are backing demands by striking journalists in Ukraine for their rights to be protected during the privatisation of their newspaper as they took their struggle to the President’s door. Staff at daily newspaper Vilnym Shliakhom in Kivertsi today protested at the gates of the Presidential administration, having already staged 10 days of strike action in protest at the failure of the authorities to protect their rights during the reorganisation. The strike by members of IFJ/EFJ affiliates the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) and the National Union of Journalists…

Ukrainian freelancer Mikola Semena was today summoned for questioning in Crimea following charges of making calls to separatism and undermining Russia’s territorial integrity. If found guilty, he could face five years in prison. The International and European Federations of Journalists join their Ukrainian affiliates, the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), in urging the Russian authorities to drop the unfounded charges against Semena. On 19 April, the Federal Security Service (FSB) agents in the region of Crimea raided and searched the house of Semena, confiscated his reporting equipment and briefly detained…

Ukrainian journalist Maria Varfolomeyeva has been held under arbitrary detention since 9 January 2015 in Luhansk city by the authorities of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). The journalist has been accused of spying for the Ukrainian nationalist movement (Right Sector) and threatened with a 15-year jail sentence, IFJ and EFJ affiliates reported. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ), representing around 600,000 journalists in the world, have backed their Ukrainian affiliates in condemning such an unlawful detention and urge for her immediate release. According to reports, Varfolomeyeva, working for local news website Svobodny Reporter and as…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined the IFJ #endimpunity campaign. We call on the European journalists and the EFJ partners to participate in the ceremony organised by the IFJ today, from 16:00 to 16:30, at the Residence Palace’s patio, in Brussels, in partnership with the Association Générale des Journalistes Professionnels de Belgique (AGJPB) and the United Nations. 2 November 2015 will mark the second commemoration of the killing in Kidal, Mali, of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, RFI reporters. To date, the criminal investigation launched by French and Malian authorities has yet to identify the killers and bring them to…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today strongly condemned the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s decision to ban at least 38 international journalists and bloggers from the country for one year. The President’s decree, which was signed yesterday and published on the presidential website, names 388 people representing an “actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” The IFJ and the EFJ call on the Ukrainian government to remove the journalists’ names from this list. Poroshenko said the list targeted people involved in Russia’s 2014 annexation of…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) back their Ukrainian affiliates the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) in deploring the injury of five journalists following riots in front of the Parliament in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, on August 31. Violent clashes took place in front of the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, as deputies approved in first reading a bill amending the Ukrainian Constitution to grant greater autonomy to Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Fighting erupted between activists led by the populist Radical Party and the…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) are deeply saddened by the death of Ukrainian journalist Sergii Nikolaiev, 43, in eastern Ukraine, on Saturday. Sergii Nikolaiev, senior photographer of Segodnya daily Ukrainian newspaper, died of wounds after an artillery attack near the village of Pesky located just 1.5 kilometer from Donetsk airport, in eastern Ukraine, on February 28. He has become the first Ukrainian journalist killed in eastern Ukraine and the seventh one of the entire journalists’ death toll of this war. Five journalists from Russia and one from Italy were killed in this war last…

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) pledged their support to the ongoing dialogue between the Ukraine and Russian journalists unions under the auspices of Dunja Mijatovic, Representative on Freedom of the Media for the OSCE. IFJ President, Jim Boumelha, participated in the fifth Ukraine / Russian dialogue meeting in Vienna 25 February, where the Russian Union of Journalists, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine met to review the situation facing journalists attempting to report the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. “The conflict, violence and war…