Ukraine media, public and human rights institutions are appalled by death of Cherkassy journalist, blogger and public activist Vadym Komarov, who died in the hospital on June 20.
Vadym Komarov was brutally assaulted in center of Cherkasy on May 4. Having sustained a severe head injury, he remained in a coma ever since and he died without recovering consciousness.
Over the past few years, Vadym Komarov has been reporting on corruption in Cherkasy, wrote a lot about the local authoroities and he had been target of several attacks due to his professional activities.
We, members of Media movement, call on the Ukrainian authorities to undertake the substantial and systematic steps in order to put end to impunity for attacks committed against the journalists. Only since last five months, 72 cases of physical aggression against journalists have been recorded (99 cases of violations of press freedom in a total), as to the findings of the Institute of Mass Information.
We demand that the National police of Ukraine ensure prompt and transparent investigation of the murder of our colleague.
We urge the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to make every effort to ensure that attacks on journalists do not remain unpunished, to take the investigation of the murder of Komarov under his personal control.
We also call on the President to facilitate the creation of an intergovernmental working group on freedom of speech and the security of journalists and activists.
As of today, the most of the attacks targeting the journalists remain unpunished, in particular - the shocking murder of the famous journalist Pavel Sheremet, that had been committed in Kyiv in 2016.
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n the 5th of February, several Ukraine TV channels, radio companies, printed press outlets and web-based editions and media NGOs launched the media initiative aimed to ensure for Ukraine citizens the possibility to elect the head of state and the parliament on the ground of complete and trustful information.
The first signatories of the media movement memorandum were: UA: Pershy, Ukraynske Radio, Hromadske radio, Ukrinform, Interfax-Ukraine, Liga.net, Dzerkalo tyzhdnya weekly, Novoe Vrema daily, Censor.net, The 5th TV channel, Ukrayinsky Tyzhden, Opinion, several regional mass media, Independent media council, Detektor Media, The Institute of mass information, Internews Ukraine, Center for democracy and rule of law, Souspilinist Foundation, Independent association of TV and radio broadcasters, The Donetsk institute of information, The Institute of democracy named of Pylyp Orlyk and other media institutions and individual journalists, in total 70 members adhered the media initiative.
