BRUSSELS. March 20 (Interfax) - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative for Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic has expressed her outrage about the attack by parliamentarians from the Ukrainian Svoboda Party against the acting president of the National Television Company of Ukraine, Aleksandr Panteleymonov.
"I am appalled by this outrageous action, which goes against all media freedom values and cannot be tolerated," she wrote in a letter to Ukraine's Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov
"This is a particularly serious incident as some attackers not only represent the legislative branch of power, but also are members of the freedom of speech and information committee of the Parliament," she said.
Meanwhile, UDAR Party leader Vitali Klitshchko called on the Svoboda deputies, who forced Panteleymonov to resign, to give up their parliamentary mandates.
On March 18 Svoboda people's deputies forced the acting president of the National Television Company of Ukraine to write a letter of resignation. A clip posted on the Internet showed them hitting Panteleymoniv in the head and face.
Ukraine's Acting Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnytskyi vowed to give a bipartisan, objective assessment to the Svoboda's actions.