(IMI/IFEX) – The following is a 30 March 2007 statement from IMI, an interim member of IFEX: On 30 March 2007, supporters of the opposition Party of Regions assaulted the crews of Chernomorskaya TV and Radio and of Novyy Kanal TV. The journalists were filming the departure of a specially charted train transporting the party’s […]
(IMI/IFEX) – The following is a 30 March 2007 statement from IMI, an interim member of IFEX:
On 30 March 2007, supporters of the opposition Party of Regions assaulted the crews of Chernomorskaya TV and Radio and of Novyy Kanal TV.
The journalists were filming the departure of a specially charted train transporting the party’s supporters to Simferopol-Kyiv.
One of the journalists, Olena Mekhanik, told IMI that they were filming a group of men loading groceries onto the train and wanted to interview them. At first, the conductor tried to stop the journalists from proceeding. Then a young man, who appeared to be the leader of the party supporters, pushed the journalists out of the train and tried to seize their camera.
The crew of another television station, Novyy Kanal TV, was accorded the same treatment.
Mekhanik said Petro Zaporozhets, one of the leaders of the Party of Regions, told her that the television crews did not have an invitation to the event and, therefore, no permission to film it.
The journalists have filed a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an investigation into the incident under Article 171 of Criminal Code, which prohibits the hampering of journalists in their work.
