Journalist held at police station 4 hours for photographing Academy of Science
The police were called by a security guard of the academy, who seized Dzmitry Lasko's passport and said photographing was forbidden.
The incident took place at 8 p.m. on February 26. The journalist of Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi wanted to take pictures of the new lighting of the Presidium of the Academy of Science in Independence Avenue in Minsk, but got detained by the security guard.
“The security guard said it was forbidden to photograph the building and said to show my ID. I showed him my passport. He took it and called the police. Policemen arrived in a few minutes and confirmed that photographing was banned. They ordered me to get into a police car and took me to a police station,” Dzmitry Lasko told the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
Dzmitry Lasko was taken to the Pershamaiski district police station, where he remained until midnight. According to the journalist, police officers examined all photos, asked him about his job and made a police report.
“They said that under a decision of the Belarusian internal minister of 25 February 2015, taking photos of administrative buildings was forbidden. They wanted to seize all flash cards, but then decided not to do it. I was released at midnight,” Dzmitry Lasko added.
