Belarusian authorities banned Russian journalist of "Dozhd" ("Rain") TV channel Rodion Marinichev from entering Belarus for five years. Monday, May 30, a journalist was detained by police in Minsk after an interview with the wife of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, Irina Khalip. On the eve a journalist also recorded an interview with former candidate Vital Rymasheuski.
The interview with Irina Khalip was recorded in Minsk Horki Park. At the park exit he was stopped by police and asked to show the bag, according to «Dozhd» TV channel.
«My mistake was to have placed a certificate in the passport. Although, of course, I took it because of my work on TV «Dozhd.» They asked for accreditation. I had nothing to say as I had contacted no government offices. I arrived in Belarus to take photos of individuals, people who could tell me what’s happening. It was under personal agreement,» said Rodion Marinichev.
Then the journalist was taken to the police station, as explained by law enforcement officers, «to examine the documents and find out whether he belongs to some sort of extremist organizations.»
«When I arrived, they forced me to turn out my pockets and found a piece of paper with opposition activists’ contacts written on it. Of course, they understood the reason of my arrival then. Officially, I was to have written about the Belarusian literature, that’s why I met with Belarusian writers yesterday,» said the journalist.
Correspondent was released three hours after the arrest, being ordered to leave the territory of Belarus within the day and banned from entering the country for five years.
«The most insulting is that they secretly erased all the records. I’ve only saved the hidden camera materials with queues at the exchangers, shelves in the stores and some comments of people on them, but very little,» said the journalist.
As Telegraf previously reported, May 27, at the meeting on the situation on the currency and consumer market, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko ordered to close foreign media working in Belarus. «I will not call them, not to raise their ranking. But do your best to eliminate these media on our territory,» he said.
