Ukrainian journalist detained at Polish-Belarusian border while filming trade between Poland and Russia
Photo: Facebook / Mykhailo Tkach
Journalist of "Ukrainian Pravda," Mykhailo Tkach, was detained in Poland near the border with Belarus. The investigator and the cameraman filmed material on the transit of products between the Polish state and Russia.
The "Ukrainian Pravda" publication reported this.
"Polish policemen approached us near the border between Poland and Belarus and showed us our badges. We showed our documents and journalist's credentials. They started grabbing our cameras and conducting searches on us. Then they brought us to the commandant's office," Tkach said.
As reported by the media representative, around ten individuals were conducting searches, carrying out the following actions:
- throwing items from the car onto the hood;
- removing all memory cards from the cameras;
- taking away phones and documents.
"During the 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," the investigator noted.
Tkach added:
"It was obvious that the representatives of the Polish special services were scared. They started asking who else knew about it, whether the Ukrainian authorities or the government knew about it. They asked who our sources were, how we found out about it, and how long we have been working on this topic."
"Ukrainian Pravda" indicates that the publication employees were kept in the commandant's office for at least 4 hours and only then released after permission "from above." All this time, they were not allowed to contact anyone.
Media representatives were interrogated not only by the police but also by representatives of the special services. After the memory cards were returned to Tkach and the cameraman, it became known that some of the filmed materials had been deleted.
During the search, the law enforcement officers spoke exclusively in Polish, and in the commandant's office, the special services talked to the Ukrainians in English. At the same time, they asked whether the journalists would tell publicly that they were detained.
The editor-in-chief of "Ukrainian Pravda," Sevhil Musaieva, said that the situation was normalized only after publicity and with the support of the Ukrainian embassy.
So far, the Polish police have released Ukrainian journalist Mykhailo Tkach and videographer Yaroslav Bondarenko, who were making material about the transit of products to Russia through Poland and Belarus. Police removed part of the video. The journalist reported that on Facebook.
