Polish law enforcement officers detained Mykhailo Tkach, the Ukrainska Pravda journalist, at the border near Belarus - the journalist was filming trade between Poland and Russia.
The situation in Poland is getting more and more interesting. We support Mykhailo Tkach and hope the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) will seek clarification on the inadmissibility of obstructing the work of journalists from their European colleagues.
Polish law enforcement officers detained Mykhailo Tkach at the border near Belarus - the journalist was filming trade between Poland and Russia.
What Mykhailo said about that.
"Polish police officers approached us and showed us a badge near the border of Poland with Belarus. We showed them our documents and journalist's credentials. They started grabbing our cameras and searching us.
Then they brought us to the commandant's office. About 10 people started searching our car, us, threw our belongings on the hood, took all the memory cards from the cameras, took all the phones and documents. During the interrogation at the commandant's office, I told them that we were journalists and said that we were filming how Poland trades with Russia through Belarus and how Poland trades with Belarus, how agricultural products go from Russia and Belarus to Poland. It was clear that the representatives of the Polish secret service were frightened. They started asking me who else knew about it, whether the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian government knew about it. They asked me who our sources were, how we found out about it, how long we had been working on this topic."
He also added:
"Thank you all for your support We are free. Our belongings have been returned. From what we managed to check, the video was partially deleted. For some reason, they tore out the charging wires in the car. Why did they take the phones and where? We'll find out what the principle was. But I have never seen ten policemen and two special services pay so much attention to two journalists whose faces are googled in a second. It all started with the plainclothes policemen asking why you are standing here, and ended with the Polish secret service interrogating me:
- How do I know about the trade with Russia and Belarus?
- Did I tell anyone about it?
- Who else knows about it and where?
- When is the material going to be published?
- Who do I talk to in Ukraine?
- Do representatives of the Ukrainian government have this information?
I understand their work, but I have my own work to do. And we have not been treated like this for a long time. Four hours without the right to call, without phones, and two hours standing in the courtyard of the commandant's office without permission to sit down, watching your personal belongings being thrown around the hood. It's a pity the video was deleted.
But we will shoot more.
Maybe trade with aggressor countries, countries that sponsor terrorism will stop and there will be nothing to film.
In the meantime, przepraszam is definitely socially important information. In particular, for Polish society. Thank you again for your messages and calls. I thank the Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland and the consul for their support. I managed to send a message that Sevgil Hayretdın Qızı Musaieva was detained."
