“In a beautiful gift package – it’s the spring shopping hit in Kyiv,” declared Vitaliy Kadchenko in his television news report for Russian network ORT.

He was describing the appearance of a single novelty doll of Adolf Hitler, in a single downtown Kyiv shop, which at a handsome price tag of $240 was far beyond the reach of most Ukrainians, and far from being a fad.

The Russian Federation has had a difficult go with journalism ethics. Heavily influenced by Vladimir Putin’s use of the media as political propaganda, and his government’s hostility to the former Soviet republics, the Russian media have developed the habit of looking for any news hook to cast Ukraine as a nation teeming with nationalism, and on the brink of fascism.

How amusing from a nation whose ultranationalists control about nine percent of parliamentary seats (compared to zero in the Ukrainian parliament) and whose leader mimicked Benito Mussolini's taste in fashion.

Clearly Kadchenko’s report is an utter distortion of anything taking place in Ukraine and is as strong a candidate as any for a libel suit.

What’s most unfortunate is the British Broadcast Company (BBC), which is supposed to be a journalistic ethics standard-bearer, failed miserably at checking facts. Rather than questioning the outrageous information, and that its source was a television station based in an authoritarian state, BBC reporter Jane Hadden embraced its veracity. She led her news report with the words, “Could this really become the new must-have toy for the children of Ukraine?”

While BBC typically exercises extreme restraint and sensitivity on ethnic and racial matters, the same standard doesn’t seem to apply to Ukraine.Hadden’s utter lack of sensibility and professionalism deserves a prompt dismissal. In causing damage to the image of Ukraine and its citizens, the BBC ought to issue an official apology and correction, joined by Deutsche Welle, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror, which also indulged in the slop-slinging.

Rather than sitting by passively as its nation's image gets dragged through the mud unjustifiably, the Ukrainian government needs to actively defend against libel committed by foreign journalists, particularly the Russian sensationalists.

Filing a few libel lawsuits against the news companies reporting, and even repeating, such defamation, regardless of how symbolic the suits might end up being, is the most effective way to combat these injustices.