UPDATE 12.09.2018: On 12 September, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the verdict delivered by the Moscow City Court to Ukrinform journalist Roman Sushchenko, who was sentenced to 12 years in a high-security prison. The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) have urged the Russian authorities to release a Ukrainian journalist given a 12-year sentence for alleged espionage. Roman Sushchenko was sentenced to 12 years in a high-security prison on 4 June 2018, after he was found guilty of spying by a Moscow court. The EFJ-IFJ joined its affiliates the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the…

The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) have today renewed calls for the release of Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko on the anniversary of his arrest by Russian authorities on spying charges. The IFJ/EFJ backed the demand of their affiliates, The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) and Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) for his immediate release and the condemnation of the charges against him. Working for Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform for 14 years, Sushchenko had been the agency’s correspondent in France since 2010. He was arrested on 30 September last year…

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…

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 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…

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) joined on 5 September their Ukrainian affiliates in condemning an arson attack that set ablaze the headquarters of private broadcaster Inter TV private broadcaster headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine. Reports said that a group of around 20 activists staged a rally yesterday in front of Inter TV’s building, set tyres on fire and threw a smoke bomb into the premises, causing a fire which damaged the first and second floor. The Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU), an EFJ/IFJ affiliate, reported that one of its members, Inter TV journalist Olena Zorina, seriously injured…

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 its regional organisation, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), have together backed a journalists’ strike in Kiev in early April after the TVi broadcaster ceased paying salaries to 300 employees. The Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU), an affiliate of the IFJ and the EFJ, held the demonstration on 2 April in support of the journalists where it demanded the management to pay the media staff. According to TVi staff, the channel, which stopped broadcasting on 23rd March, recently changed ownership to David Zhvania’s and the new management ceased the salary payments.…

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…