Ukrainian journalists call for boycott on international meeting in Russia

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) voted against holding the 2014 European Federation of Journalists meeting in Russia.

NUJU and IMTUU declared that it is not “permissible” to conduct this year’s meeting of the European Federation of Journalists in the Russian Federation and asked the EFJ’s Steering Committee to change the place of the meeting.

“In the other case we call the unions of journalists – members of EFJ to boycott the meeting on the territory of Russian Federation. We condemn the actions of the Russian Federation as a state aggressor which, for the first time since the Second World War has conducted an annexation, thereby violating the territorial integrity of another country.”

Holding a forum of European journalists in Moscow means that journalists support the words of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, that “Goebbels was a talented person," they said.

The two unions said they are refusing to participate in an event which might be used for the propaganda of an aggressive war and the support of terrorism.

“We expect that our boycott will be joined by journalists’ organizations and members of the European Federation of Journalists at minimum from those countries, whose citizens were killed on board the Malaysian flight.”

Moreover, the Ukrainian journalists’ unions said that “the best way of expressing solidarity and support by European journalists of their Ukrainian and Russian colleagues would be to send a clear signal to the dictator that Europe is united in expecting an end to aggressive actions and is prepared to stand behind our values.”

The Ukrainian unions added that it is difficult to imagine holding a meeting of European journalists in Moscow after leading European media supported a call by the well-known Polish journalist Adam Michnik for an end to the policy of appeasement towards Vladimir Putin.

They noted that in recent weeks, leading European media called on intellectual elites, first and foremost journalists, leaders in the cultural and scientific spheres, not to remain silent, as was the case in the past century during the annexation of Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland and the Baltics.

“These events, as was the case of holding the 1936 Olympics in a country with a Nazi regime, did not lead to peace and remain to this day a shame for all of Europe. The aggressor remains an aggressor and through a policy of appeasement only gains additional strength and daring: the citizens of the aggressor’s country believe in the dictator more when they do not see resistance to his policies and the citizens of other countries lose resources and hope for the just international support of order across the globe.”

The Ukrainian unions added that the recent annexation of Crimea in eastern Ukraine by the Russian Federation shows that Putin’s government is not prepared to take into account the views of others.

“That is why the attempt to justify holding a European journalists forum as a form of support for independent Russian journalists is doomed to failure from the start,” they said.

Reiterating their support for independent Russian journalists and the Russian Union of Journalists on the issues of protecting Russian journalists, NUJU and IMTUU said it would not support the Russian government, “which completely controls the informational space within that country.”

They said the Russian government will use the holding of any international forum in the same way that Hitler used the 1936 Olympics, as a propagandist tool, while all those who are not in agreement with such a usage will meet the same fate as the Ukrainian journalist Yevhen Aharkov, who, for his professional activity, was arrested, fined and “thrown out of Russia,” and could only leave the Russian Federation following international pressure.

“No one can guarantee the safety of journalists on the territory of the state-aggressor. This is a territory the government of which has demonstrated that generally recognized international laws are not recognized there. The leader of the Russian Federation wishes to institute a new world order and understands “law” only as the rights of the strong and ‘dialogue’ as the fulfillment of conditions which have been imposed,” they added.