Three Romanian Journalists Detained By Moldovan Police, Released A Few Hours Later

Three journalists of Romanian TV station Realitatea TV were detained Thursday night by police in the Republic of Moldova and were released a few hours later, Realitatea TV reported on its website.

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Reporter Yevgenyia Kironaki, camera operator Mihai Valentin Buzduga and driver Gabriel Colac were detained for nearly four hours and could not be contacted all this time. Subsequently, they were released and left for Romania.

Once they reached the police station, the three were asked to present their IDs and were requested to wait in the car. Once they got into the police station, they could not be contacted for nearly four hours.

Realitatea TV has not been broadcast in Chisinau for several days now.

Romanian journalist Dragos Bota, of Romanian daily Gandul, was kept Wednesday night in a room on the airport in the Moldovan capital Chisinau and expelled to Romania, the journalist wrote Thursday in an article in Gandul.

A reporter and a camera operator of Romanian TV station Antena 3 were also expelled from the Republic of Moldova Wednesday night after they had reached the airport in Chisinau and were told they required a visa.

Reporter Iosif Buble and cameraman Robert Dicu said they arrived on the Chisinau airport Wednesday 20 minutes past midnight on a flight from Budapest. While waiting for passport control, they were told by Moldovan police that as of midnight, Romanians required a visa to enter the Republic of Moldova.

Moldovan customs officers Wednesday said they closed the border crossing at Sculeni, on Romania’s eastern border with the Republic of Moldova following anticommunist protests that degenerated into street fights Tuesday in the Moldovan capital Chisinau.

The Romanian Government Wednesday rejected the accusations of the Moldovan authorities regarding an alleged involvement in the internal affairs of its neighbor as provocation.

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