Crimean communists disrupt television broadcast on NATO

On Thursday evening a group of communists led by deputies from the Crimean parliament decided to use methods of force against pluralism of opinion.

A live programme as scheduled to take place on the State television and radio company “Crimea” on Euro-Atlantic integration. Those planning to take part including the Head of the NATO Information and Documentation Centre in Kyiv Michel Dure, officers from Russian and Ukrainian fleets, as well as representatives of the public and from the different political forces on the peninsula.

Before the programme was to start, the group of communists and youth activists burst into the studio chanting and pushing the journalists invited. They forced the management to suspend the live broadcast.

At the same time, another group blocked the entrance to the television company preventing some of the journalists and specialists from entering. They also applied force, shoving people and twisting their arms.

The Head of the programme Kateryna Gromova called the behaviour uncivilized and an attempt to muffle journalists and political opponents.

The police say that the testimony gathered will be passed today, Friday, to the Crimean Prosecutor in order to initiate criminal charges under article 171 of the Criminal Code “obstructing journalists carry out their lawful work).

This is not the first time that Crimean communists led by the same deputies have applied force against journalists and political opponents. In September 2007 they broke up two press conferences in Simferopol and in November that year did the same to an academic conference on Holodomor issues in Ukraine. In March this year they disrupted the presentation of a book by the last Commander of the UPA [Ukrainian Resistance Army] Vasyl Kuk and in June assaulted members of a pro-NATO civic action.

There was no reaction then from the Prosecutor.

From a report at www.radiosvoboda.org