The executive director of the Rossiya Segodnya News Agency, Kirill Vyshinsky, on Wednesday, urged journalists to keep on speaking about the situation in Ukraine and specifically focus on people who have been living through the war in the eastern breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donbas, known together as Donbas, over the past five years
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th November, 2019) The executive director of the Rossiya Segodnya news Agency, Kirill Vyshinsky, on Wednesday, urged journalists to keep on speaking about the situation in Ukraine and specifically focus on people who have been living through the war in the eastern breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donbas, known together as Donbas, over the past five years."I understand that there is a certain tiredness about the Ukraine topic. But I feel that it has to be spoken about, because the most important thing has not yet been said. What has not been spoken about is the people who have been living in war conditions for more than five years how they live, what they hope for, and what they believe in," Vyshinsky said during the OSCE international conference on media freedom in Moscow.
He reiterated the importance of speaking "not only about politics, not only about formulas, not only about the agreements, but about formats and about people."
Vyshinsky, who spent more than a year in prison in Ukraine over his alleged treason and support for the breakaway regions, recently produced a documentary titled "People of Donbas" which is about the people who live through the war there and others who have encountered it in one way or another volunteers, political scientists, journalists. Regarding the latter, Vyshinsky stressed that journalists should make efforts to protect their rights, including in terms of their accreditation.
"I understand that there are many important problems with accreditation being canceled ... Our website [RIA Novosti Ukraine, which Vyshinsky headed before becoming becoming director of Rossiya Segodnya] has been working [in Ukraine] without accreditation since 2014, and we are not alone. The stance [of people who suggest to] appeal to the Duma [Russian lower house] is confusing to me do you really think that journalists are not capable of solving their problems on their own? The solution is simple," Vyshinsky said.
According to the journalist, the solution is to raise this issue during press conferences as frequently as possible because the parliament is unlikely to adopt laws based on individual cases of journalists.
"We are building a civil society. I think that journalists should fight for their rights instead of waiting for the Duma's decision. If there are efforts, they will bring about results," Vyshinsky added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly said that Vyshinsky's arrest was politically motivated and yet another demonstration of how the former Ukrainian authorities' targeted journalists. OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir, who is also present at the media freedom conference in Moscow, had also expressed his concern over Ukraine's actions toward Vyshinsky and called for the journalist's release.
Vyshinsky was released from custody in August after spending more than 400 days in pre-trial detention, as the court repeatedly postponed the hearing of his case. He is far from being the only journalist who has been detained by Kiev for covering the Donbas conflict. Some have been accused of treason over their support for Donbas while others wanting to cover the situation have been banned from Ukraine. Such cases include both Ukrainian journalists, such as Igor Guzhva and Vasily Muravitsky, as well as foreign journalists, such as Marc Innaro of Italy.
Ukraine ranks 102nd out of 180 on the Reporters Without Borders 2019 World Press Freedom Index.
