PRESS RELEASE

OSCE Media Freedom Representative expresses hope that all who perpetrated and ordered the murder of Pavlo Sheremet in Ukraine are brought to justice

VIENNA, 13 December 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, expressed his hope that the perpetrators of, and masterminds behind, the murder of the journalist Pavlo Sheremet will soon be identified and brought to justice, after the Ukrainian authorities declared five persons to be suspects.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed yesterday that “the probable murderers are detained”, after the deputy National police chief Yevhen Koval presented the names of five suspects involved in the crime, several of them being former volunteers or people with military experience.

“The truth about this horrendous crime must be known,” Désir said. “I hope the killers and those who organized the murder will now be identified. I call for an end of impunity in this murder.”

Sheremet, a journalist with Radio Vesti and the Ukrainskaya Pravda online media outlet, was killed in a car explosion on 20 July 2016, in Kyiv. Throughout his professional career, Sheremet worked as a journalist in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

“Pavel Sheremet was a courageous journalist who reported on human rights violations, journalists’ disappearances and corruption cases,” Désir said. “He received many awards, but also many threats because of his work. His assassination was a shock in Ukraine and in Europe. All those involved, all perpetrators and masterminds, must face justice.”

Désir has publicly called on the Ukrainian authorities numerous times in the past to step up their efforts in investigating Sheremet’s murder, most recently at the Moscow Conference on Freedom of the Media and Safety of Journalists in the Russian Federation and in the OSCE region on 6 November 2019. See https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/438065?download=true.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. He provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org/fom, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM and on www.facebook.com/osce.rfom.

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