Belarusian journalist fined for taking video of KGB officer
- 22.04.2009, 14:25
Independent Belarusian journalist Ales Lyubyanchuk was fined 770,000 Belarusian rubles by the Pershamaiski district court of Minsk.
Ales Lyubyanchik was found guilty of disobedience to militia and violation of breach of public order. The journalist was detained on April 16 near the building of the Pershamaiski district court, where youth activist Zmitser Khvedarukv had a trial over his complaint at actions by militaries during the draft campaign, the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports.
Ales Lyubyanchuk noted he was in the court room as a journalist on that day and he was detained because of his conflict with a secret service officer, evidently, a KGB officer.
The incident happened when the journalist was interviewing Zmitser Khvedaruk after the trial. Some people, Khvedaruk’s friends and relatives, journalists, were standing near him. A young man in mufti began to take video of the people. The man didn’t react to requests to explain why he was taking video and demands to stop it.
According to Lyubyanchuk, he began to take video of the stranger, too.
“He became nervous, run up to us, pushed the camera away, got a radio set out of his pocket and told something. We left the court building, but some minutes later this man and a militia officer came up with us. A militiaman Dzyadzeika said I was detained for breach of public order. I agreed to follow him, otherwise the militiamen threatened to apply force,” Ales Lyubyznshuk said.
As the Pershamaiski district militia department was on fire at that time (the Charter’97 press center has already informed about this), the detained journalist was guarded in the sobering-up station (the building of militia, court, and sobering-up station are very close), where he was searched and two administrative reports were drawn up against him. The journalist was taken away his camcorder, telephone and storage devices for an hour.
According to one of the reports, Lyubyanchuk is accused of disobedience to a militia officer. The second report was drawn up on a complaint of the stranger with a camcorder. The man said Lyubyanchuk had been shouting at him, pulled him by collar, and pushed his camcorder. Lyubyanchuk learnt the name of the man from the report ¬– K. Kharlan. The journalist says he introduced himself to militiamen as a secret service officer. After the reports were drawn up, Lyubyanchuk was guarded to the Pershamaiski district militia department, where he was taken photo and fingerprinted. The journalist had to spend the night in the militia department.