Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has refused several BBC correspondents and Russian state media journalists to enter the country. Following a presidential decree the people listed on his website are threaten national interests and promote terrorist activities.

Commenting this Rebecca Harms, Co-President of the Greens/ EFA Group in the European Parliament, says:

“The presidential decision to withhold entry permits for foreign journalists to the Ukraine and as an effect to hamper news coverage from and within the Ukraine is wrong. Freedom of speech is an indispensable prerequisite for democracy. President Poroshenko has apparently made a fundamental mistake. This decision has to be annulled immediately. Also within the Ukraine those in office have to accept that critique and deviant opinions are an essential part of every vital democratic culture.”
Harms frequently travels to the Ukraine and is intensely following the political transformation process and the relations to Russia and the European Union. Last week she attended an international strategy conference in Kiev.