Artem Shevchenko: At the meeting of the Council on Freedom of Speech, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Police spoke about the investigation of proceedings on the facts of threats to journalists
At the first meeting of the Council on Freedom of Speech and Protection of Journalists under the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine spoke about the investigation of criminal proceedings on the facts of obstruction of journalistic activity and threats to journalists by A. Portnov. And also - about the investigation of proceedings on his application on the fact of obstruction of his journalistic activities and illegal collection of information about the person. The investigation is ongoing. They were also informed about one fresh suspicion that the Kyiv Region Police presented to a person who interfered with the journalistic work in Vyshneve.
One of the key problems of investigating this category of cases is a clear definition of a journalist as a person legally, professionally and systematically engaged in activities related to the collection, receipt, creation, distribution, storage or other use of information in order to disseminate it to an indefinite circle of persons through print media, television and radio organizations, news agencies, the Internet. In this sense, the recommendations of the Parliamentary hearings to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the NP, in which ephemeral “other persons in connection with their exercise of the right to freedom of speech” or some unknown “media participants” are mentioned as subjects of journalistic activity do not contribute to the precise qualification of the crime and its effective investigation to be blown. Regarding the illegal collection of information, which Portnov accuses journalists of, we have made it clear to the members of the council that this is unlikely to be possible in public, freely accessible places, as opposed to, say, private housing or home ownership. But finally, the investigation has to be established.
