VICE News correspondent Henry Langston visited Donetsk to witness the ballot and ask people what they were voting for, but he and his crew quickly ran afoul of masked gunmen who were patrolling the station. They forced the crew inside the occupied administration building, where they were detained, searched, and interrogated for three hours before being allowed to leave. The experience offered some indication of what press freedom in the DPR would look like should it ever become independent.