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Committee to Protect Journalists condemns arrests of reporters during «silent» protests

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the arrests of reporters during "silent" protests staged in Minsk and Brest on June 29.

"It seems that every time journalists pull out a camera on a street in Belarus they are set upon by police," CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney says in a statement. "This thuggish attempt at censoring coverage of social and political protests must stop."

On Wednesday, the Belarusian police briefly detained 13 journalists, beat up three journalists, including two foreigners, and damaged three pieces of equipment, the statement says with reference to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

According to the Association, police arrested Ales Piletski, a correspondent with the newspaper Nasha Niva; freelance photographer Uladzimir Hrydzin; Vadzim Zamirowski, a photographer with the newspaper BelGazeta; BelaPAN correspondents Alina Radashchynskaya and Vadzim Shmyhaw; BelaPAN photographer Kseniya Avimava; Interfax-Zapad photographer Pavel Ptashnikaw; Katsyaryna Barysevich, Alena Talkachova, and Syarhey Hapon, correspondents with the Belarus version of Russia's newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda; and Ugis Libietis, a correspondent with Latvia's Latvijas Radio.

BelaPAN cameraman Vasil Syamashka was hit in the head by a policeman, suffering a cut to his brow, the statement says. Photographer Natallya Ablazhey had her camera damaged. Police also damaged the cameras of Mr. Hrydzin and Reuters cameraman Vladimir Kostin.

BBC Russian correspondent Oleg Boldyrev and cameraman Maksim Lomakin were beaten up while they were filming the protest in Minsk on video. In Brest, police arrested freelance journalist Ales Lyawchuk and BelaPAN photographer Milana Kharytonava. //BelaPAN