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Violence against journalists

Russia will send note to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry over Zvezda TV Channel journalists

MOSCOW, June 07, /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s ambassador in Kiev has said the Embassy will do its best for Zvezda TV Channel journalists to be released as soon as possible.

“The embassy has been informed on the situation. We’ve prepared a note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. I’ll sign it soon,” Mikhail Zurabov told Rossiya24 TV Channel on Saturday.

“We addressed the OSCE Mission and informed it. It made the statement,” he said.

“The Russian Consulate-General in Kharkov is starting to take corresponding measures,” Zurabov said.

“I hope that now the legitimate authorities are forming. They will bear full responsibility for all events and interact with the power in Ukraine’s south-east,” he said.

Reporters of Russia’s Zvezda TV Channel - cameraman Andrei Sushenkov and video engineer Anton Malyshev were detained by Ukraine’s National Guard on Friday, June 6.

The TV channel says on its website the two journalists - Andrei Sushenkov and Anton Malyshev - had entered Ukraine officially on June 4 for covering the presidential inauguration. Contact with them was lost after they were stopped at a checkpoint in the Donetsk Region on the way to Slaviansk.

The TV channel says that cameraman, Andrei Sushenkov at about 17.30 local time told the channels’ producer in Moscow by telephone they were being searched at a National Gaurd post near the village of Bylbasovka and that their documents had been taken away. The journalists have been unaccounted for ever since.

“We are asking for support from the entire journalistic community in our efforts for the release of our colleagues,” the TV channel said in its statement.

Tags

Foreign policy Ukraine Media freedom Freedom of speech Journalism

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