Journalists, who cover mass protests in Ukraine, continue to suffer from the tyranny of the police and gangsters loyal to authorities. Attacks on journalists are reported not only in Kyiv, but accompany active protests in Ukraine’s regions.In Lviv, early on January 26th, three unknowns severely beat Vadim Shevchenko (in the photo), a cameramen of the TV channel «Zik». The strangers attacked the journalist near his house, and hit him in the face. It was clearly not a robbery as attackers did not take his money, but seized an electronic TV channel pass. Recently Vadim filmed protesters’ storming of the regional council in Lviv and other “hot spots”.Also in Cherkasy two journalists of Polish TV channel “Belsat” were attacked: Serhei Marchuk was wounded, and Yurii Vysotskii was detained by the police. The Union of Polish Journalists protested against the arrests and expressed its worries that journalists could be deported to Belarus. The reporters are known for their journalistic investigation in Belarus, and can face persecutions of the local authorities.
In Dnipropetrovsk, clashes near the building of the regional state administration took place on January 26th. Two cameramen of the local “34 channel” asked for medical help. Both of them were wearing special clearly marked press vests. According to the journalists, they were shot in the back (in the photo) with traumatic weapon by young men of sporty appearance, presumably hired by the authorities. In the same city, in Dnipropetrovsk, the unknownshowered stones onto a film crew of the TV channel ICTV.
In Zaporizhzhia during the dispersal of Euromaidan on the evening of January 26th Dmitrii Smolenok, a journalist of the website “VV”, was beaten by the police and detained. Another journalist, Yurii Gudimenko, was injured too. “I was filming until I was struck by police truncheon in my hand, in which I was holding my journalist ID – a useless thing, as it appeared. The hand seems undamaged, only a finger is broken. Hospitals are full of beaten people,” he wrote on Facebook.
In Mykolaiv Oleh Dereniuha, a journalist of the website “NilVesti”, was attacked at a rally in support of the ruling Party of Regions. He was filming a fight, which occurred at the rally, when a group of people started wringing the journalist’s hands and pulling him away.
In Kharkiv on January 25th, young men wearing sports suits attacked the supporters of Euromaidan. Somejournalists were injured: one of them got a head injury, another (a photographer of the channel “1+1”) got his camera broken.
In Kyiv soldiers of internal troops attacked Myroslav Misa, a journalist of the Radio “Liberty”, and seized his phone when he was filming the police frisking people on the streets. The soldiers twisted the hands of the journalist, torn his journalistic ID and threatened him.
Previously, on January 22nd, police used fire arms against Yurii Gruzynov, a cameraman of the documentaries project BABYLON’13. “Around 5 a.m the cameraman was filming events on Hrushevskoho Street. He had a video camera on a tripod, and a large microphone with him. It was clear that he was only filming the events, without participating in them,” Natalia Udulenko, a witness, Euromaidan activist said. “He was shot with three bullets, two of which caused minor damage, but one went through his chest near the lungs.” Natalia says she saw 1cm lead spherical bullets. They were similar to those with which Sergii Nigoyan was shot dead with on Hrushevskogo Street. Yurii Gruzynov underwent medical treatment. Now his life is out of danger.
On January 25, the court had ruled 2-month detention for Marian Havryliv, a photographer from Lviv. The police detained him during the dispersal of protesters at Hrushevskoho street in Kyiv. Along with the other detainees, he was beaten and taken to a police van. The detainees are facing charges of participating in mass riots.
Based on materials by Institute of Mass Information and Telekritika
Source: http://mediafreedomwatch.org/
