MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Association of Foreign Correspondents in Argentina urged Ukrainian authorities to do their utmost to find International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin, missing in eastern Ukraine since August 5.
“We join the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and journalists from all over the world that expressed their concern about the death and disappearance of journalists in eastern Ukraine and ask the Ukrainian government to do their utmost to find Stenin as soon as possible or set him free, if he is currently being detained,” the association said in a statement.
“I’ve recently been to Donetsk and can confirm that the journalists, who work there, are at great risk – they work in the conditions of undeclared war in the cities with hundreds and thousands of civilian casualties,” Latin American journalist Patricia Lee told RIA Novosti. “In Argentina – where there used to be dictatorship and where many people have gone missing – we think it’s important to support the campaign for freeing Andrei. He should be alive and free!”
The association’s president Guido Nejamkis said that journalists should not be victims of the situation while doing their job.
“We will demand the governments of all countries to provide safe environment for journalists so that the community could exercise their right – the right to information,” he said.
Since August 5, Stenin, who had been working in eastern Ukraine, could not be contacted. On August 12, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with Latvian radio station Baltkom that Stenin had been arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service on charges of assisting terrorists.
Later Herashchenko claimed he was misinterpreted, saying he only assumed the photographer had been detained but that he possessed no precise information. Baltkom provided a recording of Herashchenko’s interview to Rossiya Segodnya.
Russia has filed diplomatic requests to Ukraine over Stenin’s case urging Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement, but his location is still unknown. The photographer is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list.
Russia has filed diplomatic notes to Ukraine over Stenin’s case urging Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement, but his location is still unknown. The photographer is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list.
Please support Andrei Stenin’s release by sharing the hashtag #FreeAndrew in social networks. Andrei is a professional war photographer reporting from the most dangerous war zones in the world. You can view Andrei’s pictures from Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya here and his most recent shots from eastern Ukraine here.
