Strong international reaction, which followed the ban on entry of the correspondent from ORF Austrian channel Christian Vershuts shows that Europe, to which Ukrainian authorities appeal so often, does not want to put up with regular violation of freedom of speech and political prosecution of the journalists, as Viktor Medvedchuk, the Chairman of the Political Council of “Opposition Platform – For Life” said.
“I have met with Mr. Vershuts a couple of times, he interviewed me, and I can say that he is an experienced, objective and dedicated journalist, who gathers information for his stories himself, including in ORDO (Separate Districts of Donetsk region, - ed.) and ORLO (Separate Districts of Luhansk region, - ed.), he is intimately familiar with the conflict in Eastern Ukraine,” Medvedchuk stated.
The politician reminded that Europe still remembers scandals with the attempts to shut down opposition TV channels 112 Ukraine and NewsOne, regular searches at hournalists’, censorship on the Ukrainian public television, in particular, failure with selection to Eurovision 2019.
“And now the Ukrainian law enforcers are going for imposition of censorship on the Austrian public television! These actions – it is an unbelievable mix of dementia and stupidity. Certainly, the international reaction to such rudeness is severe, it damages Ukraine’s reputation. Ukraine’s Ambassador to Austria is summoned to the Foreign Ministry. But neither clown Klimkin, who holds the post of Foreign Minister because of a misunderstanding, nor other officials who stand behind this decision, will bear political responsibility. They got used to the fact that our state pays for their mistakes,” he noted.
Earlier, Vienna condemned Ukraine’s authority decision to deny entering Ukraine for the journalist of Kyiv bureau of the Austrian TV channel for one year.
