You're reading: Journalists’ attackers on Kyiv’s Independence Square detained

Police have detained assailants suspected of beating up a filming crew of Ukraine' Channel 5 and STB television on Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukrainian Interior Ministry spokesman Anatoliy Heraschenko said.

“A criminal inquiry has been started on counts of obstructing journalists’ activity. The assailants have been tracked down and are being questioned. A sentence will be handed down to them after the inquiry ends,” he said.

This grave crime is punishable by five years in prison, he said.

Heraschenko also said that the police would not allow anyone to treat journalists this way. “Their work is sacred. They are the fourth branch of authority in any democratic state. It is our duty to protect them from asocial persons,” he also said.

Unidentified assailants wearing camouflage and T-shirts with red and black insignia attempted to obstruct the filming of the barricades on Horodetskoho Street near the Conservatoire just off Independence Square on July 2. The attackers said they did not want their faces to be filmed and did not trust the press.

They also demanded that the footage taken be deleted and attacked the cameraman after he refused to do so. The assailants, who used the obscene language, also threatened to break the camera and beat the journalists.