MOSCOW, June 16 (RIA Novosti) — Russian Union of Journalists urged to stop the rights violation of the staff members of Russian TV channel Zvezda, who were detained in Eastern Ukraine last week, and called for their immediate release, the Union said in a statement Monday.
"The employees of Zvezda television channel Evgeny Davydov and Nikita Konashenkov must be freed immediately. This is not the first time the Union calls to respect the rights of journalists and demands to stop their violation as an unacceptable practice, contradicting all international norms. We demand an immediate release of colleagues," the statement said.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) detained the channel's correspondent and sound engineer were detained in Ukraine’s eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk Saturday and held them in the Justice Ministry building.
This was the second detention of Zvezda's journalists in Ukraine since the start of the conflict in the country, after another two-person crew disappeared when covering the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s inauguration on June 7. They were detained following a search by Ukraine’s National Guard near Slaviansk. The two detainees were released last Monday and said they had nowhere to sleep, were not allowed to talk, and there were constant threats during their detention. The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case into the detention of the journalists.
