On May 10, various Ukrainian online media outlets leaked names, e-mails and mobile phone numbers of more than 4,000 journalists from various Ukrainian and international media outlets on the Mirotvorets website. The leak contained personal data of representatives of CNN, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, BBC, New York Times, Vice News and Al Jazeera among others, who were accredited in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in eastern Ukraine.
"For the purpose of an objective investigation and urgent response police asked the media representatives whose names and contact details are available on the pages of the aforementioned website, and which are therefore experiencing impediment of their professional activities, to contact the police investigation department in Kiev to testify as witnesses regarding the presented facts," the police said in a statement.
On May 11, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the disclosure in Ukraine of personal data of journalists working in Donbas is a violation of international legal norms. Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the leak, which she deemed obviously approved by the Kiev authorities, violates the provisions of the International Pact on civil and political rights and the European Convention on human rights, as well as Ukrainian laws.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatoviс, expressed her concern over journalists’ security in Ukraine in the wake of recent leaks of personal information, stating that hat some of the journalists from the published list had already received threats.
