Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday’s arrests of reporters, photographers and bloggers while covering a street protest in Moscow against the results of the previous day’s parliamentary elections and the irregularities that accompanied the polling.
“There was no justification for preventing journalists from covering a political event of this importance.” Reporters Without Borders said. “It was their job to cover it. The media should not have to pay the price of the government’s paranoia. The judicial authorities should immediately release the journalists and bloggers still in police custody.”
Yesterday’s protest by between 5,000 and 10,000 people on Chistye Prudy Boulevard was authorized, but the police used force to disperse them when they began to march towards the Central Electoral Commission’s headquarters.
Around 300 demonstrators were arrested, including the leading opposition blogger Alexey Navalny. Several journalists who were there to cover the protest were also arrested. They included Ilya Barabanov (The New Times), Yevgeny Ershov (Izvestya), Aleksandr Borzenko (Echo of Moscow), Ilya Vasyunin (Dozhd TV), the blogger and photographer Ilya Varlamov and the correspondents of the Reuters and Bloomberg news agencies.
The police released most of the reporters almost immediately after verifying that they were journalists. But Alexey Kamensky, the publisher of the magazine Forbes Russia, is still being held. Like Navalny, he has been charged with refusing to comply with police instructions and is facing the possible of 15 days in detention.
Forbes Russia editor Grigory Punanov told Reporters Without Borders: “The police refuse to tell us when he may be brought before a judge. We demand his immediate release. As a journalist, he had every right to be at the scene of the demonstration. He did not break any law.”
With both the ruling United Russia party and the opposition announcing more demonstrations, the police have been reinforced in Moscow and surrounding areas and special forces have been deployed on the city’s main thoroughfares.
Around 5,000 people have responded to a call on the Russian online social network Vkontakte to demonstrate this evening on Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square. More disturbances are likely and Reporters Without Borders urges the security forces to act with restraint and to respect the right to news and information.
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