Punished according to this article (144 of the criminal code), a resident of Oryol region, staged a brawl on the road. Human rights activists now hope that justice would attract under this article is not only simple citizens, but also officials.
In January 2019, the traffic police stopped the car, at the wheel which sat drunk driver. It became clear that this previously convicted 34-year-old resident of the area Zalegoschenskogo Orel region. While law enforcement officers made the Protocol, the motorist attacked the correspondent GTRK “eagle” (those making a report about the work of the inspectors). The man did not like that he filmed. With one blow he knocked down the journalist Ivan Suverina. He suffered serious injuries.
the court sentenced the driver to 2,5 years of imprisonment conditionally.
-an Article about the obstruction of journalist activities applied in our country is extremely rare, despite the fact that such violations are recorded by us constantly, – said the head of the monitoring center for the protection of the rights of journalists and freedom of the media. When the HRC Alexander Alimov. Sometimes, as a result of these incidents wind up doing other items, such as hooliganism, often won’t start at all. But it’s no wonder “the hindrance of the journalist” in a separate article 144 of the criminal code. The fact that journalists are performing a particularly important function. So their work and must also particularly protected by law. When we see that in the case of obstructing the business won’t start or starts in another article, we understand that soon we can expect the recurrence of similar incidents. Impunity generates new impunity. The journalists in this case feel insecure, and therefore cannot perform their professional duties in full. Globally, it affects the development of civil institutions in the country.
the Situation in the eagle shows that this criminal article can work and be applied, if the violation of the rights of media workers. This is a good sign. We will continue to monitor the situation and see whether Orel dealing with the exception or still a new trend to protect journalists. In regions full of cases where journalists are not allowed to carry out their work, officials in one of these stories, forbade them to remove Parking (employee municipal services broke the camera).
