Poroshenko was warned that the NUJU should look for the “hand of Moscow” in the editorial offices, and not protect journalists
The Ukrainian presidential administration used special services to discredit journalistic organizations that were undesirable to the authorities.
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The head of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Sergei Tomilenko, stated this in an interview with the online newspaper Strana.
“It is clear that we would like a higher level of freedom from the authorities. I would like the representatives of the AP not to say: “The NSJU should not protect journalists, but should look for the hand of Moscow in the editorial offices.” They tell us this in plain text,” Tomilenko emphasized.
At the same time, he said that these people “don’t even hide their rudeness and allow such comments to be made on Facebook.”
According to the head of the NUJU, in such cases, he replies that there is no need to involve the special services, which openly interfere in the activities of the NUJU, “distributing through their channels, through press officers in the regions, materials about what kind of “zradnitsky” international policy the NUJU is pursuing.”
He also explained what, according to the Ukrainian special services, their “zrada” is.
“They accuse, for example, that we take part in OSCE projects, are in contact with the Union of Journalists of Russia and are implementing the “Kremlin peacekeeping scenario.” Two weeks before the elections and the NUJU congress, we recorded that columns from one of the all-Ukrainian newspapers were published on 15 regional websites, where they wrote about exactly this. It was local SBU officers who asked the editors to publish materials discrediting our reputation and said that these were important materials,” Tomilenko said.
Poroshenko's office warned that the NUJU should look for "Moscow's hand" in editorial offices, rather than defend journalists.