British journalist faces ban for allegedly encouraging separatists to fire at Ukrainian troops

Hitlyanska said the
measure was taken “in the interests of ensuring national security,” adding that
the British journalist had “committed deconstructive actions against Ukrainian
citizens.”

Kitty Logan, a
freelancer for Deutsche Welle, wound up in hot water after describing on
Facebook an incident in which separatist forces in Luhansk offered to shoot at
Ukrainian troops to give her stronger footage.

“Following previous
failure to find rebel front line troops in action and returning with photos of
pets, tried again to witness ceasefire breaches. ‘Should I shoot at them so you
get something on camera?’ asks the rebel commander, pointing at Ukrainian
positions across the open field, currently silent. Well…errr..’We need to
fire at them anyway, they fired at us earlier.’ Story deadline looming.
Commander chomping at the bit, weapon ready. Oh, OK, why not then,” she
wrote.

Logan later denied
suggesting that Russian-separatists fire on Ukrainian positions in Luhansk
where the exchange took place, according to a July 29 tweet. “For the record, I’m a
journalist with (a) neutral perspective,” she tweeted. “I’ve never, nor would I
ever ask anyone to shoot anything other than pictures.”

In her Facebook post
that preceded the tweets, Logan then describes an ensuing firefight between
Ukrainian and separatist forces before admitting that she “did feel a tad
guilty” for the incident.

It was unclear when
exactly the firefight took place, but Logan said it happened several weeks
ago.

The post provoked
outrage among Ukrainians and other foreign journalists covering the conflict in
Ukraine, with a screenshot of Logan’s Facebook post quickly being picked up the
popular online community Reddit and other news portals.

British journalist Kitty Logan’s Facebook post where she states, “okay, why not then,” in response to a separatist’s question of whether he should fire at Ukrainian forces. (www.liveleak.com)

Logan also accused her critics of using her “as a
propaganda cannon.”

She did not respond
to a request for comment on her possible ban through a Facebook message.

Staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected].