The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has called for the de-facto authorities in Crimea to allow media members to do their job without hindrance.

Speaking in Vienna on Tuesday, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, expressed concern about the intimidation of free voices in Crimea, following the detention and interrogation of Simferopol-based blogger Yelizaveta Bohutskaya for strongly criticizing the Russian authorities.

On Monday, law enforcement representatives searched Bohutskaya’s apartment and seized her equipment and other materials. The blogger was detained and interrogated for about six hours at the Counter-Extremism Center, reportedly based on a criminal investigation of an incident in May near the boundary between Crimea and Ukraine.

Mijatović said Bohutskaya’s detention represents a clear threat to free media, and therefore is unacceptable.

 
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