Ukraine Declares War on Journalism
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by BooScout (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: New York Times
KIEV, Ukraine — In July 2014, I went to Donetsk, a separatist-controlled region in eastern Ukraine, to cover the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. It was a dangerous place at the time. The Ukrainian military and the rebels were shelling each other, and temperamental men with Kalashnikovs who had been known to kidnap journalists were everywhere.
Like many foreign reporters, I was there to relay what was happening to the remains of the downed flight’s 298 passengers and crew members. Before I went to the crash site, I obtained accreditation from the separatists. This did not guarantee that I would be safe, but it was the only way to get past the armed checkpoints.
Now Ukraine has labeled me an accomplice in terrorism.
On May 7, the website Mirotvorets (“Peacemaker”), courtesy of anonymous hackers, published part of the separatists’ accreditation records. My name, email address and phone number were among those of more than 4,000 journalists, including freelancers like me, as well as correspondents from this newspaper, Reuters, the BBC and other outlets. We were collectively labeled “terrorist collaborators” for gaining accreditation from the separatists. The list’s publishers claimed not to know what the consequences would be of releasing this information, but it seemed clear that the intent was to encourage people to take action against the journalists on their own.
Anton Gerashchenko, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament and an adviser to the Ministry of Interior, praised the publication of the list and called for journalists to assist Ukraine in its “information war” with Russia. Condemnation of the list followed from organizations including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Ukraine’s ombudsman called for the website to be blocked. As criticism built, the people running Mirotvorets said they would take their website offline and the Kiev prosecutor’s office began an investigation into whether or not those running the site had committed a crime.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/opinion/ukraine-declares-war-on-journalism.html
Ukraine: journalists blacklisted
http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Ukraine/Ukraine-journalists-blacklisted-171341
After the publication of a preliminary list of journalists who had been in Donbass,
two new lists have appeared online
On May 10, Mirotvorets, an Ukrainian website, published a list of all journalists who had worked in the separatist territories of the East during the last two years of war. A group of hackers, linked to an organization founded by Georgiy Tuka, former governor of the Luhansk region and current Deputy Minister for the "temporarily occupied territories," has stolen the journalists' names from the separatist authority’s database. New lists have been added in the past few days.
Over 7 thousand names, mine included, of journalists, photographers, cameramen, fixers and media workers have been listed in an Excel file named "Scoundrels". Even worse, along with their names, other private data such as phone numbers and email addresses have also been made public.
The group behind the operation, which manages a database of separatist militants and collaborators, and reports them to the Ukrainian justice system, said that "the publication of the list is necessary because these journalists have collaborated with members of a terrorist organization."
Continued: http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Ukraine/Ukraine-journalists-blacklisted-171341
= new reply since forum marked as read
