Accusations against reporters arrested in Ukraine false – LifeNews
“The management of the LifeNews television channel has reacted to a statement by Jennifer Psaki, a spokesperson for the US State Department, in which she expressed doubt that Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko are reporters. In a statement issued in response, [the LifeNews managers] drew the attention of the American diplomatic service to factual evidence of the abduction of the LifeNews reporters and use of violence against them,” LifeNews said in a press release.
The LifeNews letter said no evidence had still been offered to back the Ukrainian Security Service’s allegations that the purpose of the visit of Sidyakin and Saichenko to Ukraine was to “accompany terrorists.”
The channel offered to provide the State Department with any information on the detainees’ journalistic record that it might want.
It urged the State Department to “weigh all the facts and make a decision on the basis of that sacred principle that is defended in American society so zealously – the principle of freedom of expression.”
Demand to release LifeNews journalists included in agenda of Russia’s State Duma
A draft statement demanding an immediate release of journalists of the LifeNews TV channel, Marat Saichenko and Oleg Sidyakin, detained in Ukraine, and punishment to those who are guilty of violating their rights to perform professional duties is included in the agenda of the session of the State Duma. The draft statement was submitted to the Duma by the leaders of four factions and speaker of the lower chamber, Sergei Naryshkin.
“Deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation express their strong protest in connection with the detention of journalists of the LifeNews TV channel, Marat Saichenko and Oleg Sidyakin, by the Ukrainian military on May 18, 2014,” the draft document reads. The deputies note that Saichenko and Sidyakin were carrying out their professional duties on the coverage of the operations of the Ukrainian security forces in the southeast of Ukraine, and were detained under the false pretext of fighting terrorism. MPs believe that the Russian journalists became victims of a deliberate provocation of the Ukrainian power structures, for whom it is extremely undesirable to let independent journalists into places of combat and mop-up operations.
“Kyiv undoubtedly fears that journalistic evidence from places of bloody crimes committed upon the orders of the Kyiv junta, will form the basis of a future investigation and prosecution of those guilty of these crimes,” the deputies note.
They emphasize that the lives of Saichenko and Sidyakin are in danger. It is noted that violations of the law against representatives of mass media are becoming the norm with the present Kyiv authorities, “hypocritically declaring their commitment to the principles of democracy, which is an integral part is free media.”
The draft document stresses that there is abundant evidence pointing to obstacles put in the way of journalists by Kyiv, including the ban on the entry of journalists to the territory of Ukraine, and threats to the life and health of journalists.
“Deputies of the State Duma support the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation aimed at releasing journalists held hostage, including an urgent appeal to the leadership of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the employees of this organization, carrying out its mission directly in Ukraine; and I hope that the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, in the framework of her mandate, will make all efforts to ensure that such situations do not occur in the future,” the draft document reads.
Parliamentarians are waiting for decisive measures to liberate the Russian journalists on the part of those Western capitals, without whose tacit consent and direct connivance the current Kyiv authorities would not dare to resort to repressions against representatives of the mass media.
Read also:
RT journalist detained in Ukraine, taken to Kyiv for possible interrogation
Reporters Without Borders condemns detention of Russian journalists in Ukraine
Russia expects resolute action from OSCE to release detained Russian journalists in Ukraine
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