Reporters Without Borders Slams Kiev Over Blacklisting Journalists

More than 40 journalists and bloggers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, Latvia and Russia have been sanctioned by Ukraine.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Reporters Without Borders condemns Ukraine’s sanctions against journalists, the organization said in a statement on Thursday.

"This decree is a massive intervention in the freedom of the press and an entirely counter-productive escalation of the information war with Russia," Reporters Without Borders Germany Executive Director Christian Mihr stated. "Only if journalists can research in all parts of the Ukraine freely and without fear, they are able to get a reliable picture of the situation there."

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree sanctioning 90 entities and barring more than 400 people, including several high-ranking individuals and journalists, from entering Ukraine for one year. The sanctions stipulate year-long entry bans and asset freezes.

A number of foreign media outlets and organizations, including the BBC, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, condemned Kiev’s move as violating media freedom.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Secretary Svyatoslav Tseholko later said that the British, German and Spanish journalists had been removed from the list.

Reporters Without Borders is a nonprofit organization founded in Montpellier, France in 1985. The organization provides material, financial and psychological assistance to journalists assigned to dangerous areas, but also focusses on Internet Censorship and the New Media, according to its website.