Kiev persecuting media reporting truth’ – blacklisted Spanish journo to RT
The Ukrainian government is “persecuting people who are telling the truth,” Cesar Vidal, Spanish historian and journalist, who has been blacklisted by Kiev along with other European journalists, told RT.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday introduced sanctions against hundreds of individuals and legal entities, including dozens of journalists. Among them were employees of the BBC, El Pais, Die Zeit and RT’s Ruptly. On Thursday, apparently caving to pressure from European organizations and the media, he shortened the list striking off the names of journalists for British, German and Spanish media outlets.
READ MORE: Kiev revokes sanctions on British, German & Spanish journalists after western outcry
Cesar Vidal, historian, writer and contributor for Spain’s de La Razon, told RT that he was not surprised that Kiev did not remove him from the blacklist on Thursday.
He believes that he was included in the sanctions list in the first place because he wrote “about the falsehood of the thesis of Ukrainian nationalism” and about some media coverage of “the reality in Ukraine.”
“Ukrainian nationalism is a real enemy of freedom,” he said. The Ukrainian government is “persecuting people who are telling the truth. They are denying terrible tragedies like the 2 million Ukrainians who have fled to Russia, fleeing from Poroshenko and his government. This is the real reason.”
“Nobody can believe that there is total freedom in Ukraine now in many aspects,” he believes.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the US State Department encouraged Kiev to keep in mind the importance of freedom of press.
“As [the] Ukrainian government continues to review the list we encourage it to keep in mind the importance of unfettered and factual journalism in a democratic society,” Spokesperson John Kirby said in a daily briefing.
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