OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir has expressed concern about a search conducted at the resident of the owner of the Pryamiy television channel, Volodymyr Makeyenko.

"Concerned about yesterday's search in the home of Volodymyr Makeyenko, the owner of TV Pryamiy in Kyiv, Ukraine. I call on the investigators to respect freedom of the media," he wrote on his Twitter account on Friday.

As reported, on November 7, 2019, the State Bureau of Investigations conducted a search at the residence of Makeyenko within the framework of an investigation into the case of possible abuses of Ukraine's fifth president Petro Poroshenko during the sale and purchase of the channel. The case was opened at the request of the former deputy head of the presidential administration of Ukraine during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, Andriy Portnov.