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Yet another case of illegal actions towards mass media workers is the result of previous cases going unpunished.

Official statement from the movement
On June 15 Ukraine bore witness to yet another case of violence towards journalists.

An employee of the State Security Administration used force against Serhiy Andrushko, a journalist from STB TV channel, who was covering the participation of the President of Ukraine in the opening ceremony of the XXII International Agricultural Exhibition “Agro-2010”.

Serhiy Andrushko was covering the event and was accredited for it as a journalist; the force was used against him during the time he was performing his professional duties.

All of the above gives us grounds for saying that the actions of the security people bear evidence of a criminal act, provided for in Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – interference with lawful activity of a journalist.

In view of the fact that the employee of the State Security Administration saw and understood that it was a journalist standing before him, we do not believe it is sufficient for the State Security Administration to limit themselves to a simple apology.

Yet another manifestation of illegal activity against mass media workers is the result of previous cases going unpunished, when officials allowed themselves to throw journalists' microphones into the trash, and employees of law enforcement performed violent acts against journalists.

In light of all of the above, the Stop Censorship movement demands:

- to publicize the name of the employee of the State Security Administration who used force against STB TV channel journalist Serhiy Andrushko;

- to dismiss this employee from his post in the State Security Administration;
- to open a criminal investigation against him on grounds of interference with lawful professional journalistic activity;
- to conduct an investigation into the legitimacy of the refusals to open a criminal investigation on the grounds of all the previous statements from journalists about interference with their performing their professional duties.

Stop Censorship calls on Ukrainian mass media to join this statement by republishing it in their publications.

Stop Censorship civic journalist movement

P.S. Ukrainian journalists have directed a collective information request to the Head of the State Security Administration I. O. Kalinin about the incident. On the basis of Articles 9, 10, parts 4, 11 of Article 30 of the Law of Ukraine “On Information” and part 3 of Article 296 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, they request to disclose the first name, last name and patronymic of the employee of the State Security Administration who used force against STB TV channel journalist Serhiy Andrushko and with his actions interfered with Andrushko performing his professional duties; they also demand to publicize the results of the internal investigation of this incident and the resulting sanctions used.