182 journalists of nongovernmental and state mass media have signed a collective appeal to the Minister of Information and Prosecutor General. The appeal is connected with the beating of journalist Pavel Dabravolski in Minsk Frunze District Court.
The journalists brought the appeal to the Minister of Information on February 1, tut.by reports. However, Minister Liliya Ananich and her deputy Syarhei Hilman refused to accept it personally and sent the journalists to register the document.
The journalists area asking the Ministry of Information to react to the incident and inform the MIA and all its structures about the inadmissibility of creating obstacles to journalists’ legal professional activities. Journalists expect the Prosecutor General to control the check-up of Dabravolski’s beating complaint.
The actions of the policemen who beat the tut.by journalist in court are called ‘unprofessional’. This is power abuse rudely violating the law and journalists’ rights, they say.
Journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus, Autobusiness, Zvyazda, Belarusians and Market, Nasha Niva, BelaPAN, Euroradio, CityDog, Voen-TV, KyKy.org and TUT.BY have signed the appeal.
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović condemned the actions of the police and the beating of journalist Pavel Dabravolski. She urged the authorities to investigate the incident without delay.
Physical force was used to stop the violation of the public order in court, the police said.
