Poroshenko Violating the Freedom of Movement?

• 09.18.2015, 14:57
•  Europe,  EEU,  World

On Wednesday Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a document, according to which 90 entities are sanctioned and over 400 people, including several high-ranking individuals and journalists, are barred from entering Ukraine for one year, Sputnik News reports.  

According to the decree those people are banned as they are considered to be a "threat to national interests" or promoting "terrorist activities".

The banning of more than 40 reporters from countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, Latvia and Russia raised a wave of protests around Europe.

In this regard, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) called Ukrainian President’s decree a threat to media freedom. As OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović announced on Thursday, the restrictions on freedom of movement of reporters will not strengthen security in the country.

 The BBC's foreign editor Andrew Roy, in his turn, called the sanctions "completely inappropriate and inexplicable measures to take against BBC journalists who are reporting the situation in Ukraine impartially and objectively". He urged the "Ukrainian Government to remove their names from the list immediately."   

According to the German weekly Der Spiegel, the administration of the Ukrainian president was dissatisfied with the fact that BBC staff covered the parade dedicated to the 70th anniversary of World War II in Donetsk. At the same time the British journalists entered the territory of the self-proclaimed "People's Republic of Donetsk" from Russia, which Ukraine regards as illegal border crossing, DW reports.

Johannes Hahn, the EU's Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, in Brussels expressed his surprise and concern, announcing that he would certainly discuss it with the colleagues in Ukraine, because this step is not European in spirit.

In his turn, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned Ukraine, saying the inclusion of journalists on the sanctions' list was "totally unacceptable".

Andreas Umland, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kiev, called the blacklist a "public relations disaster for Kiev that is already being used by its enemies".

In order to soften the criticism, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered six European journalists to be removed from a newly-published sanctions list. But will this step help him to calm down the situation?

As it is seen from the above mentioned, both the blacklisted countries and Human Rights Organizations consider that labeling journalists as a potential threat to national security is not an appropriate response. It should also be noted that imposing sanctions against journalists by not allowing them to enter Ukraine is considered to be a violation of freedom of speech and is unacceptable for a democratic state.