In the Beating Case, Fine against Journalist Upheld on Appeal

On Jan­u­ary 25, the cor­re­spon­dent acci­den­tal­ly fol­lowed two detainees escort­ed out of a court­room and, along­side with the detainees, was beat­en by police offi­cers. The same day in the evening, he was fined for 45 basic amounts (9 450 000 rubles) (under arti­cles 23.4 (dis­obey­ing law­ful demands of an offi­cial) and 17.1 (hooli­gan­ism)).

The pub­lic and jour­nal­is­tic com­mu­ni­ty got out­raged over the inci­dent. The jour­nal­ist filed com­plaints demand­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into the fact, col­leagues sent a col­lec­tive peti­tion to the Min­is­ter of Infor­ma­tion demand­ing to inves­ti­gate the case and to take steps to ensure safe­ty for jour­nal­ists at work in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with offi­cial rep­re­sen­ta­tives. The inci­dent was broad­ly dis­cussed in the media, and even on state TV.

Nonethe­less, the judge dis­missed all argu­ments and upheld the fine.

The Min­is­ter of Home Affairs did not dis­ap­prove the actions of the police offi­cers. The Min­is­ter of Infor­ma­tion also turned a deaf ear onto the peti­tion, sup­port­ing that the jour­nal­ist had been wrong.

Now Pavel Dabravol­s­ki is wait­ing for a reply from the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, to which he had appealed ask­ing to inves­ti­gate the fact of abuse. He is prepar­ing an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Jour­nal­ist Beat­en in Court Build­ing

BAJ Demands Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion into the Fact of Beat­ing a Jour­nal­ist

Jour­nal­ists Peti­tion to Inves­ti­gate the Beat­ing Case

OSCE Rep­re­sen­ta­tive con­demns police vio­lence against jour­nal­ist in Belarus and reit­er­ates call on author­i­ties to stop per­se­cut­ing mem­bers of media

EFJ: Belarus detains and fines jour­nal­ist for film­ing police attack­ing pro­test­ers

RSF: REJOINING INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY REQUIRES END TO REPRESSION

Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion Replies to Peti­tion: Jour­nal­ist Inter­fered with Police’s Actions

Andrei Bas­tunets Speaks in Edi­tors’ Club