Detention of Dutch journalists after return from Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash site

Russian media are widely commenting on the detention of Dutch journalists Michel Spekkers and Stefan Beck at Schiphol Airport on January 7. As you are aware, they were returning from a trip to the site of the MH17 plane crash in 2014 where they were filming a documentary on the investigation of the tragedy. We have received several requests to comment on this situation.

We did see reports that the correspondents collected some parts of the aircraft and fragments of the alleged victims. It turned out that the parts remained at the crash site instead of being inspected by the Joint Investigation Team controlled by the Netherlands Public Prosecutor's Office. This has been clear to us all along. Since the day of the tragedy and for over two years, we have kept saying that very important debris was not taken for examination by the JIT. Now this is obvious, including to the journalists of the country that took charge of the investigation. However, we are deeply concerned that this information may not become available to the public in the Netherlands and Europe because of censorship attempts. We hope this does not happen.

This incident clearly shows that The Hague is extremely nervous about the increasing evidence exposing the JIT’s inadequate work. We see concerns that the team’s work may indeed be found negligent. Now the Netherlands is willing to put straitjackets on its own journalists who were just trying to find out the truth, which is their professional duty. What about freedom of speech?