The Representative on Freedom of the Media at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Harlem Desir, has expressed his concern carried out at the Kyiv home of the owner of the Priamy television channel, Volodymyr Makeyenko.
“Concerned about yesterday’s search in the home of Volodymyr Makeyenko, the owner of TV Priamy, in Kyiv, Ukraine. I call on the investigators to respect freedom of the media,” Desir twitted on Nov. 8.
It was reported that on Nov. 7 the State Bureau of Investigation searched the politician’s home as part of an inquiry into suspected abuses by the country’s fifth president Petro Poroshenko during the sale of the channel.
The inquiry was launched on the basis of a claim by Andriy Portnov, who was deputy head of the presidential administration under Viktor Yanukovych.
