Detained journalists complained to Vasilevich

On July 13 a collective address of journalist with a demand to investigate facts of detaining mass media representatives during protest rallies was sent to the General Prosecutor’s Office.

As BelaPAN was informed by the spokesperson of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, Yanina Melnikava, the address had been signed by 30 persons. “We demand to investigate the cases of illegal detentions of journalists, which happened in the recent few weeks,” the spokesperson explained.

“We do not simply demand investigation,” she underlined. “We must be told who had ordered to detain journalists while they were discharging there professional duties, who are these persons in mufti, who detain people. We also want guilty persons to be punished.”

The signees demand the Prosecutor General “to stop hindering work of journalists during the rallies or outside them.”

The authors of the address do not really hope for a relevant answer. “If no one answers us after 30 days in which addresses of citizens are to be answered under the law, I hope journalists would be consistent and would push for punishment for those guilty of violating the law “On addresses of citizens,” the BAJ spokesperson said.

An analogous address is to be submitted to the Interior Affairs Ministry today, Melnikava said.