Polish law enforcement officers detained Ukrayinska Pravda journalist Mikhail Tkach at the Belarusian border.
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He was filming about trade between Poland and Russia, the UP reported.
Tkach said that near the border of Poland with Belarus, Polish police officers approached the media workers and showed them their badges. The Ukrainians showed the documents and identification of the journalist. The security forces began to grab the cameras and search them. The media workers were brought to the commandant’s office. About 10 people began to search the car, threw things on the hood, took all the memory cards from the cameras, took away all the phones and documents.
During interrogation at the commandant’s office, I said that we were journalists and said that we were filming how Poland trades with Russia through Belarus and how Poland trades with Belarus, how agricultural products go from Russia and Belarus to Poland. They started asking me who else knows about this, whether the Ukrainian authorities, the Ukrainian government know about this. They asked who our sources were, how we found out, how long we have been working on this topic.”
The weaver and the operator were kept in the commandant’s office for at least four hours and only then released after permission from above. All this time, journalists were not allowed to contact anyone. At the Polish commandant’s office, Ukrainians were interrogated not only by police, but also by representatives of the intelligence service.
After the memory cards were returned to the journalists, it became known that some of the footage had been deleted. In addition, Ukrainians were asked whether they would publicly say that they were detained.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.