Security Guards Prevent Journalists from Taking Photos of Administrative Buildings
On March 1, journalists were prevented from taking photos of the action dedicated to Boris Nemtsov near the Russian Embassy in Minsk.
Photo by www.kp.by
Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus reported that on Sunday people were bringing flowers to mourn the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, Russian opposition leader shot in Moscow on Friday night.
Unfortunately, at 3 pm, security guards came out and demanded to take away photo cameras because it was forbidden to take pictures of administrative buildings. Personal data of some journalists were written down.
It should be mentioned that on February 26 an incident occurred with another photojournalist of Komsomolka. The reporter Dzmitry Lasko wanted to take a photo of the Academy of Sciences in the evening, but was detained at 8 pm, and spent around 4 hours at the police department while the officers inspected his ID, personal belongings and information carriers. The officers referred to an internal ruling issued by the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs enumerating public places that can be photographed only with a special permit. The list includes railway stations, airplanes, etc. Interesting enough is that the document is internal and will not be published. Also, the law allows only three hours detention for identification (the police do not consider it to be a hamper to journalists’ work).