On 1 July 2015 a correspondent of the Russian State broadcaster Channel One, Alexandra Cherepnina, was detained and taken to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for interrogation. Later she was forcibly deported from Ukraine, facing a ban on entering the country for the next three years.
Her professional activities were assessed by the Ukrainian authorities as “anti-Ukrainian and destructive”. In particular, Alexandra Cherepnina was groundlessly accused of distorting facts in one of her reports.
However, Alexandra Cherepnina was released without any charges of violating the law. It confirms the fact that the Russian journalist cannot be considered guilty of performing her professional duties covering the present developments in Ukraine. Her forcible deportation from Kiev has once again showed that the Ukrainian authorities ignore their international commitments towards journalists as well as the principles of freedom of speech.
Such actions of the Ukrainian authorities run counter to the international law and international commitments of Ukraine, including their commitments as a Council of Europe member State, in particular as envisaged by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, by paragraph 14 of Resolution 428 (1970) on “Declaration on mass communication media and Human Rights”; by paragraph 7,ii, of Resolution 2 “Rethinking the regulatory framework for the media” of the 5th European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy (Thessaloniki, 11-12 December 1997) and other relevant Council of Europe documents.
Mr Pushkov,
To ask the Committee of Ministers,
To assess the abovementioned actions by the Ukrainian authorities with regard to their correspondence to the principles of freedom of the media.