Moldova <http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1284852.php/Moldova_ police_arrest_TV_crews_filming_pro-Romania_demonstrators> police arrest TV crews filming pro-Romania demonstrators
Mar 30, 2007, 10:55 GMT Chisinau - Moldovan police arrested television crews and destroyed video tapes shot of a pro-Romania demonstration, the Infotag news agency reported Friday. Camera teams from three leading Chisinau news programmes were involved in the incident, which took place as small group of anti- government demonstrators were placing flowers at a grave in a public cemetery in the Moldovan capital. Police intervened, citing violation of public assembly law forbidding organized political demonstrations not sanctioned by city authorities, and possible trespassing on cemetery premises. Law enforcers arrested along with some two dozen members of the opposition Liberal Party of Moldova, a three member camera crew from PRO-TV. The journalists were held in police custody for more than an hour. Police simultaneously used their city-wide search network to track down and detain a second camera team initially escaping police detention, from DTV television, releasing the crew only after using magnets to wipe clean a video tape taken of the demonstration. City security officers left guarding the grave site, containing the remains of a World War I hero later known for supporting Moldovan unification with Romania, banned all camera use, threatening to destroy photo equipment and to beat journalists with clubs, when a third reporter team arrived on the scene later in the day. Moldova's parliament condemned the police actions in a Friday afternoon near-unianimous vote, and approved a special commission to investigate the incidents. A statement from Moldova's Committee for Radio and Television criticised the police, saying in part 'This is not the first time members of state security forces have interfered with reporters doing their jobs.' Once known as Bessarabia, Moldova was a province split between Romania and Russia for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Soviet Union in 1945 took total control over Moldova, which only became independent in 1991. Since then Moldova's government has been hyper-sensitive to calls Moldova should return to the control of Moscow or Bucharest. C 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
