(Geneva, September 15, 2014)

Mr. President,

In reply to the statement delivered earlier by the delegation of the Russian Federation, I would like to particularly touch upon the issue of the protection of journalists.

In Ukraine their rights are ensured at the legislative level and relevant violations, when happen, are investigated properly and thoroughly.

Meanwhile, it is confusing how persistent Russian journalists are in their unwillingness to held official accreditation for their activities on the territory of Ukraine.

They would rather prefer quite questionable press credentials issued by illegal armed groups, recognized by the Government of Ukraine as terrorist organizations.

We would like to take this opportunity to call on the Russian side to persuade its journalists to abandon their vicious practices to be terrorists “heralds” and sources of one-sided and false information.

Unless, of course, we are talking about the real care of the real journalists but not saboteurs that had been sent into Ukraine under the guise of being Russian reporters before their country decided to openly send its regular military units to the southeast of Ukraine.

We would like to draw attention to another feature of the Russian mass media representatives’ work in Ukraine.

There are cases when unfolding of Russian press crews precedes shelling of populated areas by terrorists, allowing capturing the colorful picture of another tragedy and often attributing it later to the results of the Ukrainian army activities.

It is obvious that they are notified well in advance about the place of upcoming bloodshed, for which the population of Donbas already nicknamed such “journalists” as “death harbingers”.

Because of the Russian media desire to do a service to the Russian authorities in their anti-Ukrainian propaganda, their news, regretfully, become a set of insinuations and fakes inflaming hatred and seeking justification of at any cost illegal, even from the point of view of the Russian legislation, actions of the Russian Federation in the eastern part of Ukraine.

It is in this regard that last June the Parliament of Ukraine was forced to appeal to reputable international organizations on the issue of information and psychological aggression carried out by the Russian mass media against Ukraine.

Thus, we urge the Russian delegation to convince their journalists to stop neglecting their lives for the vicious purposes of the Russian bellicose anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

I thank you.

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