The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) and journalist Alexander Balitsky have asked Ukrainian acting Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitsky to punish Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleh Liashko for insulting reporters.
“I request that you take all due measures and hold deputy Oleh Liashko criminally liable. I believe there are formal elements of a crime in the conduct of deputy Liashko – impediment to lawful activity of a reporter, insult and slander,” the Vesti.ru television channel’s website quoted a statement by Balitsky.
VGTRK made a similar request to Makhnitsky. “Federal state unitary enterprise VGTRK requests immediate necessary and sufficient measures towards opening a criminal case over the impediment to lawful activity of a journalist, insult and slander committed by deputy Oleh Liashko at the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada on June 6, 2014,” says a VGTRK letter to the Ukrainian acting prosecutor general.
The letter said Balitsky visited the Verkhovna Rada in the line of duty and the VGTRK Ukrainian office operated “in strict compliance with the applicable law of the country of stay, i.e. Ukraine”.
It claimed that Liashko had made “insulting, erroneous and slanderous comments” on Balitsky and other journalists.
Radical Party leader, former Ukrainian presidential candidate Oleh Liashko expelled a VGTRK filming crew from the Verkhovna Rada building on June 6. An Interfax correspondent reported Liashko demanded to see the crew’s identification documents. He returned the press identification to the Russian channel’s journalist but crumpled up his Verkhovna Rada accreditation card and told the reporter, “Your accreditation had just been cancelled.”
The deputy raised his voice to order the VGTRK journalist and cameraman out of the Verkhovna Rada. The Russian journalists objected that the deputy had no right to do so but Liashko accused them of being “Russian spies.”
In the end, shouting, Liashko pushed the Russian journalists out of the parliament building.
