MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russian senators have written in a draft statement they believe the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest watchdog on press freedom, should react to reports that Russian journalists have been banned from covering events in Ukraine.
“The broadcast of Russian channels has been suspended in Ukraine, the Russian-language versions of official websites of Ukrainian government agencies have been blocked, Russian journalists are being subjected to psychological and physical pressure, the websites of Russian mass media covering events in Ukraine are hit by hacker attacks,” the statement reads.
The Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, is expected to consider the draft statement at a meeting on Wednesday.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian border guards have slammed doors on a number of Russian reporters, citing "insufficient travel funds" as the reason for barring them from entering the country, despite the journalists having more than enough money to travel to Ukraine under the country's laws.
Last week, RIA Novosti photographer Alexei Kudenko was prevented from entering the country after arriving at the Donetsk airport, while another RIA Novosti correspondent, Andrei Malyshkin, was removed from a train heading to the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk.
The country also barred the entry of the editor-in-chief of the Russian Pioneer magazine, Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov and photographer Dmitry Azarov.
Late last month, The Kiev district court ordered the suspension of broadcasting of four main Russian TV channels in the country: Rossiya, Channel One, Rossiya-24 and NTV. Moscow said the move was a violation of international obligations, raising fears for media freedom in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the lack of a Western reaction to the deplorable state of press freedom in Ukraine suggested a double standard on the issue.
The Federation Council believes “further violation of Russian journalists’ rights and restriction of the activity of Russian media in Ukraine are unacceptable and the international community, in particular, the OSCE and other international organizations overseeing media freedom, should adequately react to these violations,” the draft statement said.
