06 June 2004 00:16
Belarus police briefly detain two Russian TV journalists
Minsk, 6 June: A camera crew of the Russian TV company Ren TV was detained in Minsk's October Square on 6
June.
Correspondent Yelena Slav and cameraman Aleksey Pokrovskiy were working on a report about a hunger strike of deputies
of the House of Representatives [parliament's lower house] and representatives of the United Civic Party. [Three
Belarusian MPs from the opposition-minded Republic group went on a hunger strike on 3 June. They want the parliament to
consider their amendments to the Electoral Code and demand the release of a former foreign trade minister and key
opposition figure, Mikhail Marynich, from the KGB remand centre. See reports by Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English
0945 gmt 3 Jun 04; Charter-97 web site, Minsk, in Belarusian, 1616 gmt 4 Jun 04.]
Yelena Slav said that the incident happened while they were interviewing two teenagers, 16 and 17 years old, who had
been detained and beaten up by the police for a graffiti saying "Freedom to Marynich!"
The journalists were delivered to the capital's Tsentralny district police directorate. They were released after
all the circumstances were clarified and their IDs checked.
[Passage omitted: background on the hunger strike by the deputies and opposition representatives.]
[Belapan news agency] |
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