Journalist arrests on rise in east Ukraine
7/24/2014 11:33:57 PM
Journalists are increasingly being arrested in eastern Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders said Thursday, as US channel CNN and Russia's RT said two contributors had been detained while covering the crisis.
"Arbitrary arrests and disappearances of journalists are on the rise again in eastern Ukraine," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement, calling for both troops loyal to Kiev and pro-Russian separatists to allow journalists to cover the conflict freely and release those detained.
CNN said rebels were holding its Ukrainian fixer Anton Skiba in the eastern city of Donetsk, adding it was working to secure his release.
The American channel confirmed in a statement on its website that a group of armed separatists seized Skiba, a freelance fixer and photographer, outside a Donetsk hotel on Tuesday evening.
It said that an unnamed rebel leader later told the channel that Skiba was a "Ukrainian agent".
Meanwhile, British journalist Graham Phillips, who works for RT as a freelancer, is being held hostage by Ukrainian forces and may have been moved to Kiev or Western Ukraine, a journalist who was detained with him told the channel.
Vadim Aksyonov, a cameraman from Anna-News, a news agency based in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region, told RT he and Phillips were detained as they tried to cover fighting around Donetsk airport.
He said he was beaten and that he believed Phillips was also beaten while being held in a separate room. "I heard Graham scream and I was screaming too, it was horrible," he said in comments dubbed into English.
"They beat me so badly," he said. "They said if they catch me again, they'll kill me."
Aksyonov said their captors dropped him off at a checkpoint but he believed Phillips was then moved to an area controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.
"I heard they told Graham they were taking him to Western Ukraine or Kiev," he said.
Ukraine's security service said Wednesday it had no information on Phillips' whereabouts.
Phillips went missing on Wednesday after telling RT he was going to cover intense fighting around Donetsk airport.
His disappearance prompted the Russian foreign ministry to release a statement calling his reported capture "a targeted provocation of Ukrainian authorities towards independent international journalists".
"Arbitrary arrests and disappearances of journalists are on the rise again in eastern Ukraine," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement, calling for both troops loyal to Kiev and pro-Russian separatists to allow journalists to cover the conflict freely and release those detained.
CNN said rebels were holding its Ukrainian fixer Anton Skiba in the eastern city of Donetsk, adding it was working to secure his release.
The American channel confirmed in a statement on its website that a group of armed separatists seized Skiba, a freelance fixer and photographer, outside a Donetsk hotel on Tuesday evening.
It said that an unnamed rebel leader later told the channel that Skiba was a "Ukrainian agent".
Meanwhile, British journalist Graham Phillips, who works for RT as a freelancer, is being held hostage by Ukrainian forces and may have been moved to Kiev or Western Ukraine, a journalist who was detained with him told the channel.
Vadim Aksyonov, a cameraman from Anna-News, a news agency based in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region, told RT he and Phillips were detained as they tried to cover fighting around Donetsk airport.
He said he was beaten and that he believed Phillips was also beaten while being held in a separate room. "I heard Graham scream and I was screaming too, it was horrible," he said in comments dubbed into English.
"They beat me so badly," he said. "They said if they catch me again, they'll kill me."
Aksyonov said their captors dropped him off at a checkpoint but he believed Phillips was then moved to an area controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.
"I heard they told Graham they were taking him to Western Ukraine or Kiev," he said.
Ukraine's security service said Wednesday it had no information on Phillips' whereabouts.
Phillips went missing on Wednesday after telling RT he was going to cover intense fighting around Donetsk airport.
His disappearance prompted the Russian foreign ministry to release a statement calling his reported capture "a targeted provocation of Ukrainian authorities towards independent international journalists".