Ukrainian Journalists' Union Demands Release Of Reporter Held In Belarus
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
The head of Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists (NUJU) is demanding the release of a Ukrainian radio correspondent being held in Belarus.
NUJU Chairman Serhiy Tomilenko said on November 17 that UA: Ukrainian Radio correspondent Pavlo Sharoyko was arrested in Minsk on October 25.
"The detention was carried out by the KGB of Belarus,” Tomilenko said, adding that Sharoyko is only being allowed representation provided by the Belarusian authorities.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed Sharoyko’s detention and said the ministry’s Foreign Policy Department was taking measures to protect the journalist’s rights.
Interfax-Ukraine reported that the Belarusian Foreign Ministry would only confirm that Sharoyko was "accredited as a foreign journalist, but we have no [further] information and can't comment."
The journalist’s detention was first reported on November 17 by Zurab Alasania, director-general of the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine.
In a tweet, Alasania said the Belarusian Embassy had not responded to requests for information. He wrote that “unofficial information” indicated the journalist is being held on espionage charges, although that could not be confirmed.
Tomilenko said his group is also attempting to contact the Belarusian Embassy in Kyiv and the Ukrainian Embassy in Minsk.
He added that the International Federation of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, and the OSCE representative on freedom of the media are being alerted.
Charter97.org quoted Sharoyko's colleagues as saying the journalist was working on stories related to the search for Pavlo Hryb, a Ukrainian citizen who disappeared in Belarus after being arrested and who was later found to have been sent to Russia.
"Journalists are killed and put behind bars in Belarus," said Natalya Radzina, the editor in chief of Charter97.org, a human rights organization.
"They are spuriously accused of extremism, insulting the president, [and] organizing riots," she added.
An excerpt:
Having visited Ukraine twice this year to support the mission of Oklahoma's National Guard training Ukrainian forces, Inhofe decided to address the U.S. president in a letter, asking to approve lethal defensive assistance to Ukraine, VoA wrote.
"Both trips have brought into stark relief the gravity of the situation there. The military land-grab Russia has launched in Ukraine is unprecedented in modern European history. Since then, Russia's continued aggression and repeated refusal to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity warrants a strong response from those of us who respect the rules-based international order," he wrote.
"Our response should include lethal military hardware as part of a broader effort to help Ukrainians defend themselves and deter future aggression," the letter said.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Friday, November 17, 2017. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.