“You are scum!” – Kotsaba was pushed out of the hall in Lviv
Journalist Ruslan Kotsaba, who spent about a year in prison for calling for a boycott of mobilization in the ATO, published details recent scandal that erupted at a meeting of the world congress of the PEN Club in Lviv during an attempt to draw the attention of those gathered to the persecution of reporters by the Ukrainian authorities.
Kotsaba demanded an explanation from the head of the Ukrainian representative office of the PEN Club, Nikolai Ryabchuk, why his organization accepts statements in support of Nikolai Semena, who was put on trial in Crimea, but does not pay attention to the arrests of Ukrainian journalists, for example, Vasily Muravitsky, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports. .
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“I heard here about the repressions of the Russian authorities in Crimea, and I am very interested in the position of the Ukrainian PEN Club regarding the repressions of the Ukrainian authorities against Ukrainian journalists,” Kotsaba said.
Ryabchuk refused to answer, citing a lack of translation for English-speaking participants. When Kotsaba and his like-minded people unfurled a banner with the inscription: “Journalists Kotsaba, Vasilets, Muravitsky. Who's next?" They were pushed into the hall.
There the dispute with Ryabchuk continued. He stated that he considers Kotsaba’s position on the ATO “immoral” and the journalist himself as “scum.”
“When you were in prison, we spoke out... I say again that your position, in my opinion, is legal, but immoral. You are scum, I think, but you can express any thought. You spoke, you were released, what do you want?” - said Ryabchuk.
“Why was there no statement from PEN Club?” – Kotsaba clarified.
“Because I believe that your position is immoral, I am not going to defend an immoral position,” Ryabchuk snapped.
“Can you make a statement about the persecution of journalists?” - Kotsaba insisted.
“No one is persecuting you,” the head of the Ukrainian PEN club denied.
“And not just me. But Muravitsky was packed,” the journalist continued to give examples.
“I don’t know these stories. Have you been released? They let me go. Did the court admit it? Recognized, what else do you want? If they pack you up again, we will see what you are accused of,” Ryabchuk continued to pretend that he did not understand what he was talking about.
After that, he hastily retreated, citing being busy and “some business.”
As PolitNavigator has already reported, the rest of the congress participants remained indifferent to the problem of censorship in Ukraine - as a result of the event, no resolution was adopted in support of the arrested Ukrainian reporters. But the PEN Club accepted an appeal in support of the Ukrainian propagandist Nikolai Semyon, whom the Crimean prosecutor’s office demands to be given a 3-year suspended sentence for campaigning in favor of separating the peninsula from Russia.
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