Committee to Protect Journalists criticizes Poland for detaining four Ukrainian reporters
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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), amid the detention of two groups of journalists from Ukraine, has published a statement urging the Polish government to refrain from repressing members of the press covering socially significant topics.
On February 27, Polish police detained investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach from the publication "Ukrainska Pravda" and a cameraman near the border while they were filming a report on trade in agricultural products between Poland and Russia through Belarus, Rubryka reports, citing the statement.
Polish law enforcement also detained and deported Ukraine journalist Yurii Konkevych and cameraman Oleksandr Piliuk from the editorial office of Rayon.in.ua on March 7 while they were reporting on freight traffic at the Polish-Russian border.
"CPJ is concerned by Poland's detention, in the span of two weeks, of four Ukrainian journalists who were investigating the country's trade with Russia," said Gulnoza Said, CPJ's program coordinator for Europe and Central Asia. "Journalists should be able to report on matters of public interest without fear of detention or deportation."
Polish farmers have been blocking the border crossings with Ukraine, claiming that cheap Ukrainian grain is flooding their market after the abolition of tariffs following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, the transit of goods between Poland and Russia through Belarus continues.
Polish law enforcement officers detained Mykhailo Tkach near the Polish-Belarusian border along with the cameraman while the journalist was filming material about transit. The footage filmed by the Ukrainians was partially deleted by the Polish authorities.
"They started grabbing our cameras and searching us," Tkach told his outlet.
He added that about ten policemen searched their car and confiscated "all phones, documents, and memory cards from the cameras."
Tkach and Bondarenko were released after the intervention of the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland after having been held in the office for over four hours.
In the second case, about five or six policemen detained Konkevych and Piliuk in the Polish town of Braniewo, searched their car, and confiscated phones, memory cards, microphones, a camera, and a laptop, according to Rayon.in.ua. The police did not notify the consul and did not allow the journalists to call Ukraine.
Braniewo is located about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of the Russian Kaliningrad, a port on the Baltic Sea.
The journalists were detained because they were "spending too much time photographing critical infrastructure" in the area, "namely, wagons of Russian liquefied gas," according to the report.
Konkevych told the Ukrainian press freedom group Institute of Mass Information (IMI) that "various Polish services" questioned him and Piliuk on March 7 and 8 before the Polish Internal Security Service issued an order for their deportation as "individuals posing a threat to Poland's national security."
Rayon.in.ua has started the process of appealing the deportation, which bans journalists from visiting 27 countries in the European Schengen Zone, where border controls have been abolished, for five years.
CPJ's text messages to Rayon.in.ua and email to Polish police requesting comment on the journalists' arrests did not receive any replies.
