Alerts | Denial of access to information

State defence industry conglomerate refuses to speak with media on “production issues”

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On 15 September 2023, Ukraine’s state press agency Ukrinform reported that Ukraine’s state-owned defence industry conglomerate, Ukroboronprom, was refusing to speak to the media on “issues linked to production”, following the publication of an unauthorized article on Ukraine’s defence sector by press agency Reuters several days earlier. In a response to an information request sent by Ukrinform, Ukroboronprom alleged that the Reuters publication had “endangered the safety” of a production facility belonging to the state-owned conglomerate. Due to this, Ukroboronprom was limiting “communication with the media regarding certain potentially dangerous topics related to production sites and other details”. The state-owned company added that it was open to communicating with media on other topics.

While Reuters was not known to have commented on the topic, an independent review of the article’s content on October 2 showed that it had made no mention of the location of the Ukrainian army’s production facilities, who’s safety had allegedly been put in danger by the publication.

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