DONETSK, July 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Igor Strelkov, has imposed a ban on reporters’ work in combat zones “out of considerations for safety and security", the DPR press service said Wednesday.

“The ban is introduced to secure personal safety of mass media workers and to assure information security of self-defense forces brigade,” it said.

In line with Strelkov’s decree, all the reporters, cameramen, news photographers are prohibited from conducting video and audio recording, as well as photographing during combat actions. Besides, they cannot stay inside such zones or on the territories adjoining military installations, the press service said.

Ukraine turned in a most reporter-unfriendly country in the first half of 2014, as suggested by International News Safety Institute (INSI), an authoritative non-governmental organization watching the conditions in the media have to work in various countries.

More than that, the report said that Ukraine had gotten on the list of top five countries where dangers for reporters are the biggest over the entire ten years that INSI has been drawing ratings of the countries where reporters are exposed to fatal risks.

The data provided by the institute says seven reporters were killed in Ukraine from January through June, 2014 and five of died in the much-troubled south-east of the country when the standoff between the parties to the conflict went into the phase of an acute armed struggle.

The list of the victims includes Russia’s Channel One cameraman Anatoly Klyan, reporter Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin who worked for the Russian State Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), as well as the Italian reporter, Andrea Rancelli, and his translator, Andrei Mironov.

Iraq that traditionally has been regarded as one of the most risky places for journalists, occupied the second position, with six deaths of media people there.

Syria and Pakistan took places number three and four respectively, as five reporters died in each county from January through June.