Ukrainian journalist Anhar Kochneva is reported to have gone missing in Syria, according to news sources.
Kochneva has regularly filed stories for several Russian media outlets since the beginning of the Syrian conflict. The ex-deputy of the Russian State Duma Daria Mitina, who is also a popular Russian blogger reported that Kochneva may have been abducted 20 kilometers from the city of Homs, near the town of Al-Qusayr by the Syria-Lebanon border.
Last week, Kochneva was in the city of Tartus to address its residents and was supposed to travel back to Damascus but instead went to Homs to file a report, Mitina said to Russia Today (RT). “The latest information we have is that yesterday [on Friday] around noon Kochneva tried to establish connection with our TV crew in Damascus,” Mitina said in an interview with RT. “She called their hotel, but connection broke and she never called back.”
The Russian embassy is investigating the situation but does not have any information on Kochneva’s location.
Many local and foreign journalists throughout Syria have been targeted during the ongoing Syrian revolution. The death toll of reporters and citizen journalists killed in Syria since the beginning of the regime's campaign to flush out anti-government protests has jumped to 72, according to the Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF).
Source: DCMF, RT
