Ukrainian producer of Al Jazeera Arabia TV channel beaten in Kyiv

The local producer of Al Jazeera Arabia TV channel Vadym Tomashevskyi was beaten while filming a TV story about the life of Ukrainians during the war.

The journalist informed the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) about this.

According to him, on the evening of June 8, the television crew filmed at his home, and later, when the air raid alert was announced, in the underground parking lot of his house in Kyiv. After the shooting, a man who introduced himself as the chief of security ran up to them, blocked the group’s way to the elevator, and called the head of the condominium.

“The head of the condominium, a woman, has a personal dislike for me because I exposed corrupt activities in the board. Apparently, she decided that television was filming a story about her. But we explained that this was not the case; everyone showed the credentials of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and journalist Anand Borini explained the topic of the story. But the head of the condominium, a sporty girl, still entered into a verbal dispute with me, after which she sharply hit me in the jaw, causing bleeding. At the same time, her husband, the vice president of a powerful holding, ran up and started threatening me and the journalists in every way,” Vadym Tomashevskyi said.

The journalist wrote a statement to the police and recorded the beatings. There is a suspicion of a closed craniocerebral injury; a study is being conducted.

The NUJU condemns any form of violence against journalists, especially in the course of their professional duties. We hope for a quick and objective investigation into the incident with the beating of Vadym Tomashevskyi.

NUJU Information Service