In Simferopol, "Crimean self-defense forces" attacked journalists

On May 15, in Simferopol representatives of the so-called «Crimean Self-Defense Forces» threatened journalists of local media outlets, forbade them to film and damaged equipment of some of them.  The incident took place on Lenin Square, the journalists came to film the police vehicles that were deliberately driven downtown on the eve of the Memory Day for Deportation Victims.

In particular, they threatened the photo correspondent of “Krymsky Telegraf” that they would take away his photo camera and took away his journalist badge. They took him to the building of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, where they took away his equipment and deleted all footage.

Also, the gunmen of the «Self-Defense Forces» forbade the operator of the FM TV channel to film, damaged his camera – tore away the boom microphone, and took away his cell phone. They grasped the lens on the camera of the correspondent of the state informational agency «KIA» and almost tore it away.

The journalists asked the self-proclaimed Crimean government to comment on the «Crimean self-defense forces»’ actions and responsibility for them, but received no response.

According to the Crimean mass media, the self-proclaimed head of the Crimean government Serhiy Aksionov stated that he had no intention to disband the «Self-Defense Forces», and that the Crimean Parliament would provide them with budget support.