In Luhansk, pro-Russian activists, threatening, ousted the local journalist from the meeting

On May 4 in Luhansk, pro-Russian activists were impeding the work of the local Internet media outlet “Polityka 2.0” Daryna Shatalova, threatened her and, in the end, ousted her from the room. This is the information from the IMI correspondent in Luhansk.

According to the correspondent, this happened during the meeting of the community representatives, city administration and the representatives of the people who seized administrative buildings in Luhansk, Oleksander Malykhin.

Shatalova faced demands to turn off her phone and recorder, was threatened and verbally abused. “Take her out! I will throw her out of the window!”, the middle-aged man yelled, who was wearing a camouflage uniform and the ribbon of St. George.

Separatists did not even ask the name of the media outlet that Shatalova represented. She was surrounded with a crowd, demanding the press to get out. The threats were heard until the journalist left the hall where the meeting was taking place.

Also, the participants of the meeting voted and took decision to take out of the room all journalist, regardless of the fact that initially the press was invited for the event.

As IMI correspondent was told by chief editor of “Polityka 2.0” Serhiy Sakadynskyi, he sees this incident as impediment to the lawful journalist activities. Still, he said, they chose not to address the police, as the incident had no serious consequences. Also, he mentioned, the statistics shows that of 16 addresses of local journalists to law-enforcement agencies since the start of this year, none ended in favor of mass media representatives.