The world community quite sharply reacted to the decision by Ukrainian authorities to block access to Russian Internet resources, which fell under the sanctions.
Europe, which regularly suffered from acts of Russian propaganda and kiberd, alert has responded to the Ukraine’s struggle with Russian aggression by means of restrictions to the Russian sites, through which the Russian intelligence agencies surely felt in Ukraine.
As you know, yesterday the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has put into action the decision of the Council about the ban in Ukraine a number of online resources, including popular social networks and websites as “Vkontakte”, “Odnoklassniki”, “IMDb”, “Yandex” and others. Under the sanctions also got famous software products of”1C”, “Kaspersky”, “Mail.ru”.
Photo: TASS
So, first and foremost, of course, commented on the situation of the country, against which imposed sanctions. The Kremlin said that Ukraine is not so much some powerful information resources and popular in Russian-speaking countries, however, continue to “closely monitor the situation in Ukraine.”
But the international human rights organization Freedom House believes that blocking Russian sites restricts the freedom of free expression of opinions and beliefs.
Photo: “Gromadske radio”
“We are concerned about the decision that Ukraine might block access to the media resources, websites and the media. This can lead to restriction of access to information, debate political and social issues of citizens in a pluralistic media sector”, – said the Director of the Ukrainian representative office of the organization Matthew Schaaf.
In the German foreign Ministry was concerned to take the news from Ukraine. So, the official representative of the German foreign Ministry Martin Schaefer said that “much of what is accepted in respect of the media… causes us issues in the field of freedom of the press and the media.”
Photo from open sources
“We very carefully and with some concern noted yesterday’s new sanctions of the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian President and the national security Council against Russia”, – he said.
In the same spirit spoke and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe thorbjørn Aged, which worries that sanctions against Russian sites violate the freedom of expression in Ukraine.
Photo: novostink.ru
“Blocking social networking, search engines, email services and news websites is contrary to our common understanding of freedom of expression and freedom of media. In addition, such broad prohibitions do not meet the principle of proportionality, ” said the European politician.
Harsh comments about the sanction against the Russian Internet resources, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch, which believes that Ukraine should repeal the ban on Russian Internet platforms.
“[President] Petro Poroshenko struck a terrible blow to freedom of speech in Ukraine. It is inexcusable violation of the rights of Ukrainians to information of their choice. EU and other international partners of Ukraine should immediately call on Ukraine to cancel it,” – said the representative of the NGO Tanya Cooper.
Representatives of the European Union was more restrained and yet just want to get away from Ukraine for additional information regarding the adopted sanction decisions.
Photo: AFP
To enter the position of Ukraine could only military bloc of NATO, where it is believed that blocking Russian sites in Ukraine – it is a safety issue, not freedom of speech.
Photo: AFP
“The Ukrainian government has made clear that this decision is a safety issue, not freedom of speech. NATO is working with Ukraine to strengthen its reforms, including issues of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights. Freedom of the press is included in this dialogue. We believe in Ukraine’s commitment to its international obligations and the existing in Ukraine system of checks and balances,” – said the press service of the Alliance.
