NUJU begins campaign in support of Sushchenko, Aseyev, Semena

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) has launched the project "A New Year Postcard of Solidarity" in support of Ukrainian journalists persecuted and imprisoned in Russia, Russian-occupied Crimea and occupied territories of Donbas, reads a report posted on the NUJU's website on Friday.

"In order to show solidarity with Roman Sushchenko, Mykola Semena and Stanislav Aseyev, it is necessary to hand over or send a New Year postcard to colleagues with best wishes. Postcards are to be handed over to addressees through their colleagues and relatives and published on the NUJU's official website, in other editions and social media," reads the report.

The NUJU expressed hope that a wide circle of people who are concerned about the fate of Sushchenko, Semena and Aseyev would join the action. 

"We hope that friendly and warm wishes will support our colleagues morally. We will do everything we can to get the greetings passed to addressees," NUJU Chairman Serhiy Tomilenko said.

According to the report, postcards are accepted at the following address - 01001, Kyiv, 27a Khreshchatyk Street, NUJU. Postcards to Sushchenko should be written in Russian (please note that the text will be reviewed by employees of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service). Postcards to Aseyev, who is in jail in occupied Donetsk, will be published only in mass media and social media.

Ukrinform correspondent Roman Sushchenko was illegally arrested in Moscow on September 30, 2016. He was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment in a high-security colony on trumped-up espionage charges.

Mykola Semena, a journalist of the Crimea.Realities project of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was given in Russian-occupied Crimea a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence for journalistic activities and forbidden to engage in journalistic activities for two years.

Stanislav Aseyev is a journalist of RFE/RL's Donbas.Realities project. He disappeared in Donetsk on June 2, 2017. Russian-backed separatists said almost two months after his disappearance that the journalist had been arrested on suspicion of espionage.

op