Poland's security service says they took no procedural action regarding the UP journalists

Poland's Internal Security Agency said that their employees took no procedural action regarding the "Ukrainian Pravda" journalists on the day of their detention, February 27, 2024.

This is stated in the Internal Security Agency's reply to the request by Maya Holub, the representative of the Institute of Mass Information in the Volyn oblast.

"On February 27, 2024, the employees of the Internal Security Agency did not carry out any procedural actions regarding the journalists with Ukrainian Pravda," reads the Agency's response.

At the IMI representatives' first inquiry, the Internal Security Agency replied that they could not provide information about their current operations and did not answer any questions about the detention of the UP journalists.

On February 27, 2024, the Polish police detained Mykhailo Tkach and his cameraman near the Poland–Belarus border as the journalist was filming a report on the transit of goods between Poland and Russia, Belarus. Some of the footage was deleted by the Polish law enforcers. Later, Tkach released the investigation "Granica na miazhy. How Poland is stepping up trade with Russia through Belarus".

According to Tkach, about 10 people searched their car, throwing their things out onto the hood; they took all the memory cards from their cameras, took all the phones and the documents. Tkach and the cameraman were kept in the commandant's office for at least 4 hours and were only released after permission from "above". All this time, journalists were not allowed to contact anyone. At the Polish commandant's office, Ukrainian journalists were interrogated not only by the police, but also by special service officers.

After the incident, the journalists' belongings were given back to them, but the police deleted some of the footage they had filmed.

Later, the Polish police told the IMI that they did not confiscate the phones or other personal belongings from the "Ukrainian Pravda" journalists and took no procedural action against them. Mykhailo Tkach responded by saying that the police has cameras everywhere and that if they took the interest and looked at the footage they would see whether the journalists' things were taken or not, what was taken and how.