President’s Guard removes journalist’s photos

The Internet publication Gazeta po-ukrainski reports that their correspondent in Donetsk, Tetyana Svetnytska, had some of her photos removed by a Presidential Guard.

The incident occurred when President Yanukovych was returning to his cortege after a meeting of the International Investment Summit.

Ms Svetnytska explains that she tried to photograph the President getting into his car. She says she was stopped by a guard who ran up, stood in front of her and said that she was not allowed to photograph the President getting into or out of a vehicle. She moved away, took some other shots of the President’s car and the one next to it.  A representative of the President’s Security came up, took down her details and said that it was not allowed to photograph the cortege, getting into and out of a vehicle.  She says he behaved fine, removed several shots and returned the camera.

She herself does not consider that her rights were infringed, and that if this was about security it was justified.

On Thursday the Kyiv Independent Media Trade Union called on the President to bring the rules for the activities of his guards into line with legislation. “If the President’s team really have some kind of rules for relations with journalists, these must, firstly, comply with the Law, and secondly, be made known to the journalist community. Otherwise there will be conflict again and again”, the Head of the Union Yury Lukanov states.

From a report at http://telekritika.ua/news/2010-09-30/56239