10 December 2013, 11:31
Vitishko: Sochi police detained journalists from Czech Republic for four hours
Employees of the Border Guard Service of the FSB in the Adler District of Sochi held for 4 hours Miroslav Karas, a Czech television journalist of the "ČT" and his operator, an ecologist Evgeny Vitishko has reported as an eyewitness. He added that the detainees were released only after the intervention of the press service of the city administration.
The Czech journalists appealed for help to Vitishko, who was near the scene of the incident with a group of television journalists from Austria, who planned to film the Akhshtyr Quarry. According to Vitishko, the reporters received no explanation of the reasons of their detention.
Dmitry Shevchenko, the Deputy Coordinator of the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus, believes that the detention of foreign journalists was associated with the ambiguous status of the Akhshtyr Quarry. "The fact that the illegal dump in the Akhshtyr Quarry was taken under protection by border guards indicates that all power agencies in Sochi had been instructed to shelter the environmental lawlessness created by the builders of the Olympic facilities, and to hamper to the utmost the work of 'incorrect' and 'unsanctioned' journalists," Mr Shevchenko has commented on the situation.
