Reporters Without Borders Denounces Arrest Of RT France Journalists In Poland

Reporters Without Borders Denounces Arrest of RT France Journalists in Poland

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned on Tuesday the detention of two RT France journalists in Poland, criticizing the country's restrictions on freedom of the press amid the ongoing migration crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border

PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2021) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned on Tuesday the detention of two RT France journalists in Poland, criticizing the country's restrictions on freedom of the press amid the ongoing migration crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border.

On Monday, RT France correspondent David Khalifa and cameraman Jordi Demory were detained at the border. The police of the Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland told Sputnik that they detained the journalists for illegal presence in the emergency zone.

"(The RSF) condemns the arbitrary arrest of #RTFrance reporters David Khalifa & Jordi Demory in the zone close to the #Belarus border, while they were covering the migration crisis. Driven away by the police, they couldn't do their work as journalists," the watchdog tweeted.

RSF went on to criticize the "disproportionate" restrictions of Poland's state of emergency, declared by the country in September.

"Having led to several arrests of journalists, they must be not just eased, but simply abandoned in the name of the right to information," the group stated.

Facing an influx of middle Eastern migrants from Belarus, Poland established a 1.8 mile prohibited zone at the border in September, where neither journalists nor NGOs are allowed to enter.

Last week, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said that his ministry had prepared a bill to amend the border protection law to extend provisions in the country's border areas that are currently in place under the state of emergency. The amendment would allow journalists to visit the border areas, albeit with the border service's approval for each trip.