DR correspondent Matilde Kimer has been stripped of her press accreditation and thus the opportunity to work in Ukraine.
It happened at a meeting earlier in December, where the Ukrainian security service accused Matilde Kimer of carrying out propaganda for the enemy, writes the media Journalisten.
– I have spent so many days of my life in trenches and elsewhere reporting from this war, so to have to listen to such accusations – moreover, shortly after being unloaded from Russia – it is so black for me. I have a strange feeling of having been betrayed, says Matilde Kimer to the media.
In August, Matilde Kimer was denied entry to Russia, where she has lived since 2020, for ‘security and defense reasons’.
In a statement, the Danish Association of Journalists (DJ) criticizes the decision and emphasizes that freedom of the press cannot be curtailed.
– To put it mildly, I am outraged by this attack on the free press. If a country insists on calling itself a democracy, it must also protect free media, says DJ chairman Tine Johansen.
– We all have a great need for skilled journalists to be our eyes and ears on the ground in Ukraine, and Ukraine must of course respect that, she continues.
According to DJ, the inclusion of Matilde Kimer’s press accreditation is based on the fact that she has shared several of her reports from the war in Ukraine on her Facebook page.
“Unfortunately, this shows me that the Ukrainian authorities have not understood much of how real free media work when they think they can act on press freedom that way and get journalists to bring propaganda stories,” says Tine Johansen.
Tine Johansen has today written to both the newly appointed Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, as well as to the Ukrainian ambassador in Denmark to have the decision overturned.
In the nomination for the Cavling Prize, Matilde Kimer is described as ‘the trustworthy face that connects DR’s many users with a war that can feel distant and unreal, but defines our time.’