Since the beginning of the year, the police have submitted to the court 6 cases related to obstruction of journalistic activity - Artem Shevchenko
This was stated by the Director of the Communications Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine during the online discussion of the Institute of Mass Information “Freedom of the Press. The Ukrainian context.”
The event took place on the eve of World Media Freedom Day, which is celebrated today, May 3. The participants discussed the main challenges facing the Ukrainian media community, including the investigation of violations of journalists' rights.
During the first quarter of 2021, the pre-trial investigation bodies of the National Police of Ukraine launched a pre-trial investigation for 48 criminal offenses related to the obstruction of the legitimate professional activity of journalists, of which under Art. 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - 37, according to Art. 345-1 Criminal Code of Ukraine — 11.
“I will remind you that Article 171 of the Criminal Code is classified as criminal offenses, that is, minor crimes, accordingly, a facilitated mechanism for their investigation is provided. As soon as the conflict ends with serious consequences, damage to the property of journalists, threats, harm to health, the criminal offense is reclassified to a more serious one,” Artem Shevchenko explained.
Most of the proceedings were opened under Article 171 (obstruction of journalistic activity) — 37 proceedings, another 11 — under Article 345-1 (threat or violence against a journalist) of the Criminal Code.
In particular, in Kharkiv region seven cases of obstruction were initiated, in Zaporizhia and Kyiv — five, in Zakarpattia and Odessa — four, in Donetsk, Lviv and Kherson — three each, in Poltava, Khmelnytsky and Chernihiv — two each, in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Kiev, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy regions and the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea — one at a time.
Six cases were transferred to the court in the first quarter (three cases for this year, three for last year), of them under Art. 171 Criminal Code — five (three in Kyiv and two in Odessa region), one — according to Art. 345-1 (in Zhytomyr region). At the same time, the police closed 12 criminal proceedings out of 48.
He also said that on April 27, the prosecutor's office announced the transfer to the court of a case concerning the arson of a car used by the Radio Liberty film crew.
“The National Police of Ukraine, coordinated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, conducts pre-trial investigations of this category of crimes and is constantly working to do it better and faster,” Artem Shevchenko noted.
The Director of the Communications Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also spoke about the progress of the case of the murder of journalist Komarov, which occurred in May 2019 in the city of Cherkassy. Then an unknown man inflicted several blows on the victim's head, causing him grievous bodily harm.
“Unfortunately, the murder of journalist Komarov, which took place in Cherkassy in 2019, has not yet been discovered. After two months in the hospital, on June 20, 2019, the victim died. At the moment, the investigation is considering three main versions of the attack and beating: the main one is revenge through professional journalistic activity, as well as a sudden unfriendly relationship and a crime by an unidentified person, with the aim of seizing property,” Artem Shevchenko noted.
The director of the Department of Communications told about the progress of investigative actions in this case. 25 forensic examinations were appointed, 1,693 persons were questioned as witnesses, 7 inspections of the scene and 5 authorized searches were carried out, about 100 video surveillance cameras were used, 17 cameras recorded the probable criminal. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.
