January 27, 2014

KyivPost

KyivPost’s of live blog of protests in Ukraine show moment-to-moment developments in that country, and in those updates are the stories journalists working to report in Kiev as violence spreads. So far, according to Kyiv Post, three protesters have been killed. Here’s a look at what happened to journalists there on Monday.

12:45 a.m. EuroMaidanPR, the public relations service of protesters, takes over the Justice Ministry. “Journalists are not permitted inside the building,” Brian Bonner reports.

1:21 p.m. Two Polish journalists say they were shot at on Sunday. Belsat TV’s Serhiy Marchuk and Yuriy Vysotsky were covering a protest in Cherkasy.

At that point, the officers shoved and pushed the journalists, then started beating them. They were detained in a bus for awhile. They beat them again in a bus. They kept screaming in Russian, Polish and Ukrainian they are journalists and the officers then released them.

Marchuk was taken to the hospital and received 11 stitches in his head. Vysotsky got first aid and spent whole the night until 6 a.m. today filing a police report on the confiscation of cameras. Police wrote in their report that unknown people took it and they never got the camera back. This morning, they took a taxi back to Kyiv.

1:57 p.m. More journalists report injuries while covering a protest in Zaporizhya on Sunday.

Yuri Hudymenko, chief editor of Mriya newspaper was one of them. “I was filming until my hand, in which I was holding my press accreditation, was hit with a bat. The hand is almost unhurt, except for a broken finger. The hospitals are packed with injured,” Hudymenko wrote on his Facebook page.

5:18 p.m. 50 journalists enter the space between police and protesters.

The rally was meant to ask police officers not to shoot or harm working journalists. More than 40 journalists have been injured during clashes on Hrushevskoho Street, facing attacks by police even though some of them clearly wore clothing that identified them as “press.” Participants of the rally held banners that read “Journalists are not targets” and “We are all citizens of one country. Do not shoot.” Meanwhile, police officers kept on asking them via loud speaker to leave the border line.

5:24 p.m. An activist and journalist goes missing.

… Kateryna Zhemchuzhnikov, contacted collegagues at 11:32 a.m. and said: “I have a problem. I’ll be soon at your place.” Since then, her phone has been disconnected and her whereabouts is unknown.

On Wednesday, two Radio Free Europe journalists were detained and beaten, according to RFE. That day, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that dozens of journalsits had been injured in Kiev.

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Kristen Hare is Poynter's director of craft and local news. She teaches local journalists the critical skills they need to serve and cover their communities.…
Kristen Hare

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