"It has been said enough about the press freedom in Ukraine. There are latest examples, to which we draw attention of the chair and the representative on freedom of the media: on May 1, Italian journalist Giorgio Bianchi, who intended to attend mourning events in Odessa, was detained in Kiev’s Boryspil airport. On the same day, Ukrainian border guards refused entry to another journalist – Jan Rychetsky, a reporter of Prague’s Parlamentni Listy web media. He was banned from entering [Ukraine] until 2020," Lukashevich stated at a OSCE Permanent Council meeting.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said it had refused entry to Russian, Italian and Czech citizens, who had arrived in the country to cover the fourth anniversary of the killing of over 40 people by Ukrainian nationalists in the city of Odessa. According to the Service, the Italian and Czech citizens were not allowed to cross the border due to the fact that they "have been deceitfully covering the events that were taking place in Ukraine over the past period," while the Russian journalist had been refused entry as he could not confirm the purpose of his trip.
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On Wednesday, Odessa hosted a memorial event to honor activists who died in the city’s House of Trade Unions four years ago. On May 2, 2014, supporters of the new government in Kiev chased anti-government protesters in the House of Trade Unions and set the building on fire. Over 40 people burned to death while more than 250 others sustained injuries.
