MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Director-General of the International Information News Agency Rossiya Segodnya Dmitry Kiselev urged on Friday the release of the agency’s photographer Andrei Stenin, who went missing in Ukraine earlier this week and could be detained by the Ukrainian Security Service.
"First of all, we demand the release of Andrei Stenin and also his proper treatment. The circumstances of Ukrainian security forces’ previous detentions of journalists from Russia and other countries suggest that they [journalists] could be treated improperly," Kiselev said.
The head of Rossiya Segodnya emphasized the humanitarian nature of Stenin’s work.
"Andrei was performing professional duties, working on both sides of the front line in eastern Ukraine. His works, praised by colleagues and the public, have allowed the world to learn about the suffering Ukraine and its people are going through now, no matter which side they are on," Kiselev said.
The news agency's director-general expressed hope that his foreign colleagues would also urge the release of the Rossiya Segodnya journalist.
"We call on our colleagues from Russia and other countries to back our demand for Stenin's release and expect human and professional solidarity," Kiselev said.
An informed source told RIA Novosti earlier in the day that Stenin, who went missing in eastern Ukraine on August 5, is currently being held by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the Zaporizhia Region in southern Ukraine. A spokesman for the local SBU office denied such reports.
Russia's Embassy to Ukraine is looking into the circumstances of the incident. The office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media is also checking the information about the disappearance of Stenin.
The OSCE press freedom watchdog has long been monitoring the deteriorating media environment and journalists’ security in the eastern Ukraine. It has registered more than a dozen of media freedom violations since the conflict broke out in mid-April.
In June, a cameraman for Russia’s Channel-1 TV station was killed in Ukraine's east. Prior to that, a reporter and a sound engineer from Russia’s VGTRK media holding were killed in a mortar attack near Luhansk.
