(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the Ukrainian authorities to give journalists better protection after photographer Maxim Soloviev and reporter Natalia Kozarenko from the weekly “Vhoru” were physically attacked and their equipment was taken on 12 July 2005 in the southern city of Kherson. “The seizure of equipment and material from journalists is a serious […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the Ukrainian authorities to give journalists better protection after photographer Maxim Soloviev and reporter Natalia Kozarenko from the weekly “Vhoru” were physically attacked and their equipment was taken on 12 July 2005 in the southern city of Kherson.
“The seizure of equipment and material from journalists is a serious violation of their freedom to inform the public, and is even more serious when force is used,” the organisation said, urging Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko to do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of journalists in Ukraine, especially in the Kherson region.
The incident took place when the two “Vhoru” journalists went to cover the dismantling of the privately-owned shop Columbia, on Suvorova Street in the centre of Kherson, following a dispute between the owner and spurned would-be buyers in which both judicial and city authorities have become involved.
Soloviev and Kozarenko were prevented from approaching the shop by three men who initially identified themselves as police, then as government officials and finally as “Ukrainian citizens.” They grabbed the journalists and one of them began to throttle Soloviev until he let go of his digital camera. They also roughed up Kozarenko and took her tape-recorder.
The equipment was later returned, but without the camera’s memory card and the tape-recorder’s cassette.
The journalists, who sustained just a few bruises, said their own investigation indicated their assailants were employees of a privately-owned security company who had probably been hired to prevent the press or any other persons from obstructing the dismantling of the shop. Police, who stood by during the incident without intervening, later said they would try to identify the assailants.
“Vhoru” editor Natalia Bimbirayte has asked Alexander Efimenko, the Interior Ministry official responsible for the Kherson Oblast region, to investigate. He promised to look into the case.
