MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti) – The working conditions of independent journalists in Ukraine are worsening amid growing tensions and strife within the country, Christian Mihr, German Reporters Without Borders Executive Director, told RIA Novosti.
“The crisis in eastern Ukraine is getting more and more violent and dangerous for the journalists covering it, and that’s what we see as a serious and dramatic development,” Mihr said Wednesday.
In addition media members’ disappearance, there were reports of 218 journalists who suffered physical attacks or have been injured in Ukraine in the first four months of the year, he said, adding that the journalists cannot do their job because they are caught between violence and a politicized playground.
Reporters Without Borders has observed numerous attacks against both foreign and Ukrainian journalists as well as attempts to prevent Russian journalists from working in the country.
“Any disappearance is an attack on independent journalists and independent reporting. And we call on authorities and all conflict parties not to help these things happening,” Mihr said.
Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian fixer and interpreter, Andrei Mironov, were killed by mortar fire near Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on May 24. They were the first media workers to be killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.
Rocchelli covered the conflict in Afghanistan and the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Libya. The journalist also visited Kyrgyzstan and the Caucasus. He was based in Milan and Moscow, and worked for leading western media including Le Monde, L’Espresso and Foreign Policy, as well as Russian media such as Novaya Gazeta and Kommersant.
“We would like to express deep sadness and offer our heartfelt condolences to their families,” Mihr said, noting that a German Reporters without Borders investigation showed that Rocchelli was just doing his independent job.
“Taking into account that he was such an experienced journalist, we really call on all parties to the conflict to respect the work of journalists, regardless of the editorial policies of their news organizations,” Mihr said. “It is the public’s right to information that is threatened when a journalist like Andrea Rocchelli is targeted.”
Over the past two months, reporters of Russia’s leading channels have been kidnapped, beaten, threatened and denied access to Ukraine.
Journalists of Russian news portal LifeNews, Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko, were detained near the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region on May 18 and charged with promoting terrorism. Russian journalists were held captive by Ukrainian forces for almost a week before being released.
Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that unlawful de-facto arrests of journalists by the Ukrainian authorities must stop.
