Talk on freedom of expression in Crimea given at OSCE despite Ukraine’s protests

18.09.2019, Strasbourg.

A media representative from Crimea gave a talk despite protests by the Ukrainian side at an OSCE session on freedom of expression, media and information on September 16, the Krymskaya Gazeta newspaper reports.

The Ukrainian representative interrupted the report given by the Editor-in-Chief of Krymskaya Gazeta and Krymsky Zhurnal, Maria Volkonskaya, twice, demanding that the Crimean representative be denied the right to speak; he also demanded that she leave the hall.

The moderator decided that the reporter could continue her talk, because its content complied with the purpose of the session.

In her report, Volkonskaya said that over four hundred outlets were operating on the peninsula, and that “for this number of media, no censorship or total control over the reported information is feasible either physically or technically.”

The Editor-in-Chief of Krymskaya Gazeta also noted that the Crimean outlets also cover sensitive domestic issues. Volkonskaya called “insincere” the position of the West European countries, which express their sympathy to the Crimean media “from afar” while remaining reluctant to research the issue on site due to so-called solidarity with Ukraine.

In 2014, according to a referendum in Crimea, the republic became part of the Russian Federation.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

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