The United States is concerned over curtailing of media freedom ahead of the October parliamentary elections in Ukraine, U.S. Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ian Kelly said at the Permanent Council in Vienna on July 26.
“The United States is concerned that the Government of Ukraine is
curtailing freedom of media representatives in advance of the October
parliamentary elections,” reads a statement by Kelly posted on the Web
site of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
He noted that some independent media outlets and their owners were
facing increased pressure that appeared intended to restrict their
reporting. “Recent actions by authorities include criminal
investigations, prosecutions, raids by tax inspectors, and threats to
deny broadcasting licenses,” Kelly said.
The official noted the July 12 raid on television broadcaster TVi by
tax police, a related criminal case against the channel’s general
director, Mykola Kniazhytsky, and the criminal investigation of Lb.ua
journalist Sonia Koshkina, which raise concern and appear to conflict
with the government’s moratorium on checks on the media before the
October 28 elections.
“Prosecution of these individuals continues, despite President
[Viktor] Yanukovych’s call for prosecutors and the tax service to
reexamine whether there is a legal basis for the investigations. We are
calling on the Government of Ukraine to cease prosecution of these cases
and to uphold media pluralism and independence,” the U.S. diplomat
said.
