Newspapers "Donbass" and "Vecherniy Donetsk" closed down due gunmen’s demands to change editorial policy

The newspaper "Donbass" ceased its activities due to unlawful demands from the gunmen. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief Oleksander Bryzh refused to change the outlet’s editorial policy and sent the entire staff on an unpaid vacation. According to «Donbass» journalists, on June 2 Bryzh convened the general meeting of the staff and informed them that due to the demands of the self-proclaimed «Donetsk People’s Republic» to change the newspaper’s editorial policy the journalists of the newspaper were sent on unpaid vacation. He explained that if they were to follow the separatists’ demands the journalists would break the laws of Ukraine.

Instead of 16 pages, the newspaper’s last issue had 8 pages; it also contained an announcement to warn the readership the media outlet is on hiatus.

The newspaper «Vecherniy Donetsk» has a similar situation; its staff is also on unpaid vacation.

For the context, on June 2 armed representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic came to the editorial offices of the newspapers «Donbass» and «Vecherniy Donetsk» and took their editors-in-chief to an undisclosed location. Later, after the conversation with them, they were allowed to leave.