Ukrainian PM warns journalists against attempts to undermine country's sovereignty

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said he would not support pressure on journalists, but the government would respond if materials indicating attempts to undermine the state's sovereignty were found in their work.

"It is understandable that if it is steps to undermine our state, undermine our territorial integrity, we will firmly respond, but there will be no pressure on freedom of speech," Groysman said during a government Q&A session on Friday, after being asked by People's Front faction MP Andriy Teteruk whether the authorities' actions with regard to the Mirotvorets website were unfair.

Teteruk said that, in his opinion, the deputy minister of information policy had rallied Ukrainian journalists and international media against the Mirotvorets website and had bad-mouthed its work.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental value in Ukraine, Groysman said.

"I think that we ought to maintain it," he said.

For his part, Ukrainian Minister of Information Policy Yuriy Stets said that from Monday a working group would start to tackle the situation surrounding the Mirotvorets website.

"A working group will start work from Monday. If violations of the law are found, it means that the deputy minister will be dismissed," the minister said.

In May the Mirotvorets website published lists of more than 4,000 journalists who have been accredited in the self-proclaimed Donbas republics. The list includes the names of Ukrainian and foreign journalists, their mobile contact details and duration of their stay in the territories of the DPR and the LPR.