ANKARA, December 7. /TASS/. The administration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed Monday that the Russian reporters for NTV channel previously detained in Istanbul had been released.
"Two Russian nationals, who were taken into custody on Thursday as they attempted to film a military facility without permission, were released earlier this afternoon. We appreciate the cooperation of our Russian counterparts over the last couple of days and urge all foreign journalists to follow official visa and accreditation guidelines and comply with our laws during their stay," the statement reads.
In turn, NTV said that they have no information about the journalists’ whereabouts. "We have not heard from the colleagues," the channel wrote on its website.
On December 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that contact had been lost with two Russian journalists in Istanbul. The ministry said that the journalists, reporter Alexei Petrushko and cameraman Ivan Malyshkin from Russia’s NTV channel, had last contacted their colleagues on December 3. They said then that they had been detained by unknown people who were taking them somewhere. Earlier, the broadcaster said that their employees stopped getting in touch after informing the editorial office about their detention by police officers near Istanbul.
The journalists were detained near the building of Baykar Savunma, a Turkish company specializing in the production of UAVs, a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry told TASS on Friday. The reporters had no accreditation, the source said. Baykar Savunma produces, in particular, Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicle for the Turkish army.