MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Reporters arrested in Moscow for covering pro-peace march

Reporters and demonstrators posed “a challenge to the Kremlin's narrative,” Fly said

Three correspondents covering a demonstration in Moscow calling for peace and chanting against the Russian-led invasion of Ukraine have been detained on Pushkinskaya Square.

The news team representing the Russian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was rushed onto a bus despite invoking their functions as observers and not as participants of the street gathering.

According to video footage of the arrest recorded by another crew member, law enforcement officers were also asked to stop using physical force.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly accused Vladimir Putin's government of trying to deny its citizens “access to any and all information that would expose the falsehoods it has used to justify the invasion.”

Fly stressed the RFE/RL journalists were arrested while covering an anti-war rally, which posed “an inconvenient challenge to the Kremlin's narrative” as he called for the immediate release of the three members of the press.

The Voice of America has also mentioned there had been other arrests againt journalists by heavily equipped police squads after about 300-700 people had gathered near the Alexander Pushkin monument and chanted “No to war!”

Over 1,700 people were detained at anti-war protests in 53 Russian cities while around 900 of them were in Moscow and 400 in St. Petersburg.

(Source: VOA)