15 October 2012, 20:51

Reporter Anhar Kochneva missing in Syria

Reporter Anhar Kochneva missing in Syria

The Syrian police, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are looking for reporter Anhar Kochneva who may have been kidnapped near the city of Homs. Kochneva is the Ukrainian journalist who covered the war in Syria for several Russian news outlets. She is known for supporting the Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

Kochneva disappeared on October 10. On October 14, she sent a text message to her former husband. She wrote “Hope everything will be OK soon. Don’t write me”

According to her friends and colleagues on October 9, one day before disappearing, Kochneva traveled to Tartus with a colleague where the two gave speeches to the city's residents. Next day Kocheva went to Homs to work together with a Russian TV team. Her friend Darya Mitina, deputy chairman of the Committee of Solidarity with people of Libya and Syria says Kochneva received threats from rebels many times because of her pro-governmental position.

"It is credibly known that she went to Homs alone to help a TV crew to make a report. She took a taxi and went there. She is very consistent in her pro-governmental views and she constantly receives threats on the telephone and on the Internet. If she is not with a TV crew she often travels alone. Arab is her second native language."

The family and friends of the reporter informed the Syrian embassy in Moscow and the Russian embassy in Damascus about what happened. Although Kochneva worked for the Russian TV channels and Russian media she is a Ukrainian citizen, so later Ukraine’s embassy also joined the search. We hear from Sergey Markov, the press officer of Russia’s embassy in Damascus.

"As far as our embassy was informed this was abduction. The Russian embassy in close cooperation with the local authorities and the Ukrainian diplomatic mission is trying to find out the details of the kidnapping. At present it is known that Anhar was abducted in several tens of kilometers from Homs in a place called Al Kuteiba. By now no information from her kidnappers has been received and no demands have been advanced."

Anhar Kochneva is familiar to the Voice of Russia’s listeners. In February during her short visit to Moscow she was a guest in our studio. Then she harshly criticized the position of Western media accusing them of distorting the situation in Damascus and of conducting a media war.

Since the beginning of the year four reporters who supported the Syrian government, have been killed in Syria and three have been missing.

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