IMS condemns killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet

On the morning of 20 July, Pavel Sheremet, a journalist with Radio Vesti and Ukrayinska Pravda news site, was killed by a car bomb in Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed his shock and ordered an immediate police investigation into the murder of the journalist.

International Media Support is saddened by the tragic murder of the prominent Belarusian-Ukrainian journalist Pavel Sheremet and calls for this atrocity to be investigated immediately and thoroughly so that all perpetrators can be brought to justice.

“We have lost an incredibly committed journalist and a man whose input into safeguarding and promoting free expression in Belarus is invaluable,” says Gulnara Akhundova, team leader of IMS’ programmes in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “Pavel will be dearly missed and on behalf of IMS I want to send my sincere condolences to Pavel’s family, his friends and colleagues.”

Media freedom in Ukraine, excluding the occupied territories, is considered stable. According to local monitors from the Institute for Mass Information (IMI) reported media freedom violations decreased between 2014-15.

Pavel Sheremet’s name spans print, television, radio and online publishing in Belarus and Ukraine. He started his journalistic career in Belarus, where he became known in the 1990s for his work at the Belarusian Business Newspaper. In recent years he lived and worked in Kyiv. Pavel Sheremet was a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists and a founding director of the independent news portal Belarusian Partisan. He was 44 years old.