The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's media freedom advocate called on Ukrainian authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into the death of journalist Aleksandr Shchetinin.
Shchetinin, a founder of the Novy Region online news agency, was found dead in his apartment in Kyiv on August 28.
"The circumstances of this tragedy must be swiftly and thoroughly investigated," OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic said on August 29. "His death is a loss for the media community."
Mijatovic repeated her call for authorities to improve the fragile situation regarding the safety of journalists and fully and effectively address the "issue of impunity."
Shchetinin, originally from the Russian Federation, worked as a journalist in Ukraine for several years.
Ukrainian police said they suspect Shchetinin’s death was a suicide.
Authorities said friends who visited Shchetinin’s apartment to congratulate him on his birthday found him seated in a chair on his balcony with a gunshot wound to the head and a gun on the ground beside him.
Police said Shchetinin had also written an email to a colleague in which he declared his intention to kill himself.
