Belarusian journalists arrested for interview on swine flu

• 2.11.2009, 10:16

Independent journalists Tatsyana Bublikava and Aleh Ryzhkou were detained in Homel.

As the website baj.by reports, the incident took place on October 30, when the journalists were filming an interview in Homel streets. They asked passers-by their opinions on swine flu epidemic.

As Tatsyana Bublikava told, militiamen Maksim Ihnatchyk and Ihar Tarasau came up to them and demanded to show a permit for shooting. Militia officers remained unsatisfied with journalists’ certificates and explanations of the journalists, who said they were fulfilling the editor’s task and didn’t need a permit to shoot in place.

Militiamen put in question the authenticity of the certificates and suspected the detained of “anti-constitutional activity”.

Militia officers questioned the journalists in the street for 20 minutes and then guarded them to a militia station. Some minutes later, the journalists were told their identity had been established and they were released from the militia station #1 of the Chyhunachny district. No detention reports were drawn up.