On 16 November 2020, First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova took part in a ministerial-level meeting of the Media Freedom Coalition member states, hosted by Canada and the United Kingdom.

Emine Dzhaparova noted that the situation with media freedom in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine remains critical. "Due to the Russian occupation authorities’ repressions and threats, independent journalists were forced to leave the occupied parts of Donbas and Crimea," emphasized the diplomat.

"In order to show the real situation in the Crimean peninsula, ordinary citizens began to perform functions of independent media despite new repressions against them. Nine Crimean Tatar citizen journalists are currently behind bars: Server Mustafaiev, Timur Ibrahimov, Marlen Asanov, Seyran Saliiev, Remzi Bakirov, Ruslan Suleymanov, Osman Arifmemetov, Rustem Sheikhaliev, Amet Suleimanov. I call on the international community to increase pressure on Russia to facilitate the release of these people’’, Emine Dzhaparova stressed during the meeting.

The First Deputy Minister also drew attention to experience gained by Ukraine over the years of combating Russian disinformation. She invited international partners to support the initiative of the President of Ukraine to open in Kyiv the headquarters of the International Office to Counter Disinformation.

For Reference: the Media Freedom Coalition is an informal partnership of countries established in 2019 to develop cooperation in the protection of media freedom and the safety of journalists. Ukraine joined the Coalition in 2019 during the inaugural meeting of participating countries in London (UK). As of November 2020, the coalition has 37 members.