"We discussed the situation related to the gross violations of the rights of journalists in Ukraine. We raised the issue firmly and supported the statement of the Council of Europe in connection with the flagrant violation of journalists’ rights, I am referring to the attack on the Inter TV channel. Journalists cannot and must not be subject to this kind of unlawful actions," Meshkov told RIA Novosti after a Wednesday meeting with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland.
Earlier this week, US democracy watchdog Freedom House said that the protesters who set fire to Ukraine’s TV Inter headquarters on Sunday violated the freedom of the press.
Freedom House described TV Inter as being widely regarded as "pro-Russian" in their coverage of events inside the country.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine deteriorated sharply amid the internal crisis in Donbas (Ukraine’s southeastern regions). Since the start of Kiev’s military operation in Donbass in April 2014, several international journalists have been abducted, tortured and killed in Ukraine. Among the killed journalists are Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin and VGTRK correspondent Igor Kornelyuk.
