VIENNA, July 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Union of Journalists has called on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to create a contact group to investigate crimes against news professionals.

The group could assemble journalists from various countries and start with an enquiry into numerous incidents with media representatives in Ukraine, said Ashot Djazoyan, secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists.

“OSCE could actually set up a group of journalists to launch investigations starting from this story - the Ukrainian conflict - in order to prevent further attempts to put journalists to torture and to violate their rights,” he told an OSCE briefing on Thursday, noting that more than 80 cases of violations of journalists’ rights had been recorded since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis.

This work could be organized under the auspices of OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, Djazoyan said.

“We suggest addressing the idea to Mijatovic,” he said, adding that the union had already held consultations on the creation of the group with foreign partners.

“We have already talked with counterparts from Ukrainian news agencies, and we have found support and understanding,” said ITAR-TASS First Deputy Director-General Mikhail Gusman.

“This commission should definitely be multilateral,” he said, noting that media representatives from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) association of former Soviet republics alongside some European countries had already expressed their support for the idea.

“This will be a good precedent to enhance journalists’ rights,” Djazoyan said.