Officials in Ternopil region obstructed work of “1+1” TV crew

In Ternopil region, the police investigate into the fact of obstruction to professional activity of journalists with "1+1" TV channel by the officials, as it was reported on the website of the National Police of Ternopil region.

On November 25, at 1:21 pm, the police received a call informing of an incident involving a TV crew with national TV channel “1+1” and functionaries of the Borshchiv District State Administration. Two persons snatched the microphone out of the journalist's hands, allegedly damaged the camera and locked the journalist in a room.

"In six minutes the nearest patrol police unit arrived at the scene. At that instant, the conflict was resolved. Verifying the facts, they could find out that a conflict arose between TV crew and the protagonists of the story they filmed, an employee of the district administration and her son.

"The TV crew had an editorial task and prepared the story " On failure to pay wedding video services, "- as Andriy Svinarchuk, the chief of the Borshchiv Police Department, told.

According to the journalists, they came to the office of the chief of one of the departments of the district state administration. After asking a question, a functionary's son pushed the operator outside the office, then he locked the journalist inside and did not let him out.

Neither the journalist, nor the operator got any injuries, their equipment was found out to be non-damaged. According to representatives of the “1+1” TV channel, the only thing they damaged was the video record of the conflict itself.

For his part, the civil servant said that the TV crew broke into the office without naming themselves and immediately started asking questions about non-payment of services. The official forbade to take pictures and showed a receipt in the amount of UAH 2,800 paid out for the work that had been done.

This incident has been brought to the Unified record of pre-trial investigations in accordance with Article 171 (3) of the Criminal Code. The investigation is underway.

Photo credit:Poglyad TV