Kletsk policemen who detained journalists are advised to improve knowledge of legislation

On 17 April Kletsk police detained the journalists Nastassia Krauchuk and Katsiaryna Tkachenka in the center of the town for videoing the local church for making a report about its repairs. They also detained another member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the editor of the regional bulleting Boiki Kletsk Siarhei Panamarou, and his son Uladzimir.

The detainees were told that it was prohibited to make any video shots of the temple. The detainees were kept at the police station for almost three hours. The police officers drew up detention reports and took away the video equipment, but blankly refused to present a copy of the confiscation report.

Following the incident the Belarusian Association of Journalists complained about this incident to the appropriate state agencies, and received an answer from the head of the police department of Kletsk district executive committee Mikhail Hrusha.

In this answer the official informs the authors of the complaint that during detention of the journalists the police officers committed a number of administrative-process violations.

That’s why the deputy head of the public order and prophylaxis department of Kletsk district police department was ‘was strictly stated about his serious negligence during conduction of the administrative process by him and his subordinate officers’. The head of the department S.Masko was prescribed to conduct hold additional educational classes on study of the requirements of the process-administrative legislation.’