In Russia, TSN journalists are detained

The «1+1» channel issued a statement that they are concerned about harassment of TSN journalists in Russia. On July 3, the TSN special correspondent in Russia Marharyta Sytnyk and the program’s operator were detained in Volhohrad (Russia) by a group of men, who introduced themselves as the «authorized operations officers».

The «1+1»  journalists were detained at a local hotel, where they stayed during their business trip. The Russians started to interrogate them while filming the process, searched their rooms, made copies of their identity documents, and refused to show their own IDs.

Despite the accreditation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation the filming crew presented, the ‘officers’ told them that an old woman robbed nearby – allegedly by the Ukrainian refugees, and the filming crew looked suspicious. In the course of the further conversation no other mentioning of the old woman was made. The crew was asked about the goal of their visit and informed that they had to coordinate all their actions with the local authorities.

This is not the first time when Russian law enforcement officers detain Ukrainian journalists for no obvious reason in the last few months, and the «1+1» TV channel expresses its deep concern about harassment of Ukrainian journalists in Russia. They would also like to know how the investigation of the robbing of the old woman progresses.