28 April 2004

A reporter arrested for her article

Daily News reports:

The second woman-journalist was arrested and taken forcefully to the detention center Gants Hudag after one and half hour fight with policemen. Yesterday the Bayan-Zurkh district court discussed a case related to Ms. A. Erdenetuya, journalist from the "One Day of Mongolia" and ended with detention of her. Ms. A. Erdenetuya was brought into prison because of her publication of news about MP D.Murun’s daughter who decided to conceal her father’s name when she was accused of murder of Bold’s brother, one of the members of Camerton boy group. Photo by Ariunbold. D

The court trial ended with decision to arrest and detain the journalist for three months and one day for slander of a person in accordance with the provision 111-2 of the Criminal Law. So it was supposed to take her to the Khonhor detention center yesterday evening around 19.00 PM .

But there were around 100 journalists who gathered to express their protest against the court decision saying this verdict is designed to intimidate journalists and strangle freedom of press. They expressed their protest holding newspapers in their hands standing in lines in front of the court building. Around 20.30 PM Ms. A. Erdenetuya showed up surrounded by around 40 police officers and was dragged directly to a car. It was impossible to hear her words and take her pictures. Journalists resisted and surrounded the police people. Additional force was called and there were in total around 50 police officers. There was a clash between journalists and policemen. Photo by Ariunbold.D

The police officers punched journalists despite many of them were women with rubber and electric cudgels . We witnessed that some of them even dragged women journalists by their hair and stepped over them. Ms. A. Erdenetuya could tell us that at court trial MP Murun’s advocate said it is better to suppress journalists from the beginning. Then she was taken into the car GAZ 53 but journalists disturbed move of the car because they were angered by beating with police gudgeon. The driver started to speed up the car despite people were standing on his way. Journalists realized that the car is going to smash into people so scattered and run away. Otherwise the car could have hit many of journalists. The journalists with grief over the loss of one of them, pen-pals and shortly followed the car to Gants Hudag detention center. It was around 22.00 PM yesterday.

It seems hunting for journalists already started if we judge by what Ms. A. Erdenetuya said about her arrest and detention as being punished because of her words. In Mongolia which claims itself as a democratic country where everybody enjoys freedom of speech and press one of journalists known as forerunners of democracy.