The OSCE’s media freedom spokesman condemned the harassment of three employees of Sputnik Turkey in Ankara. Contact with the journalists was lost as they went to the police after being accosted by nationalists.
Three Sputnik employees were confronted in their apartments in Ankara on Saturday night by groups of angry people who accused them of being traitors to the country. Nobody was hurt in the altercations, but after they turned to the police to investigate the incident, they went missing and have not been heard from since.
Sources in Ankara’s legal organizations as well as relatives of the journalists told Sputnik News that the detention is related to their “professional activity.”
Also on rt.com Contact lost with Russian Sputnik news agency journalists who sought police help after Turkish nationalists attacked their homesSputnik parent organization Rossiya Segodnya appealed to the UN, OSCE, and UNESCO to draw their attention to the case.
Harlem Desir, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, condemned the harassment and suspected detention. “I urge the authorities to ensure the safety of foreign correspondents,” he tweeted.
He also raised concern over reports linking the detention to a Sputnik article. Reports from some Turkish media outlets claim it was due to a story on Turkey’s Hatay province published by Sputnik.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the situation an attack on the press and demanded the Turkish government intervene.
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