Prosecutor comes out against new accreditation rules for journalists in the Crimean Parliament

Members of the mass media are protesting against the new rules describing them as an infringement of journalists’ rights.

The Crimean Prosecutor’s Office has recognized as unlawful the limitations on the number of accredited journalists, the demands not set down in legislation for documents in order to receive accreditation, as well as the ban on approaching other sources for information besides the press centre of the Crimean Parliament.

In view of this the Prosecutor of the Crimea, Viktor Shemchuk has sent the Speaker of the Crimean Parliament Anatoly Hryshchenko a demand to bring the rules for accreditation into compliance with Ukrainian legislation.

At the same time he explained that the Criminal Code sets down liability for deliberate obstruction to journalists’ legitimate professional activities and for persecution of journalists when the latter are carrying out their professional duties.

Last week Crimean journalists boycotted a session of the local parliament in protest at the new Regulations of the Crimean Parliament for accreditation of members of the media 

The Committee on Monitoring Press Freedom in the Crimea requested that the prosecutor’s office check the new rules for their conformity with current Ukrainian legislation.