Russia asks for help in finding missing photo reporter

MOSCOW, August 11 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s Public Chamber has asked the Russian Foreign Ministry and international organizations for help in searching and releasing photo journalist Andrei Stenin. The journalist working for Rossiya Segodnya (Ria Novosti) news agency went missing in Ukraine on August 5. His colleagues believe Ukraine’s law enforcers could have captured him. “It would be expedient if Russia sends a note of protest to Ukraine’s political leadership with a demand to release the Russian photo reporter and ensure the rights of journalists in the Ukrainian territory,” the Chamber said in its letter to Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry ombudsman for human rights, democracy and rule of law. The Public Chamber urged the Russian Foreign Ministry to draw world attention to Stenin’s case and initiate an investigation at the United Nations, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. The Chamber also asked the OSCE mission operating in areas of military hostilities in southeast Ukraine for interference. “We believe that any violent or unlawful actions by Ukrainian law enforcers against journalists are inadmissible,” the Public Chamber said, also asking Reporters without Frontiers, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for help. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Security Service has denied holding any Russian journalists in custody. The Public Chamber also inquired about the fate of another two Russian journalists, Sergei Korenchenkov and Andrei Vyachalo, who were in the same car with Stenin. Their employer - the iKorpus information portal which covers the events in Ukraine - lost all contact with them after they had arrived in Snezhnoye in eastern Ukraine. Learn more on itar-tass.com