Elena Kovalchuk

Affiliated media: Hrodna.life, Journalist

Incident date: October 11, 2020

Attack type:

• Fines and other restrictions following administrative offences

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Grodno

Additional information:

Security officials detained at least 43 media workers on October 11 while covering protests against the presidential election results. The journalist was detained and taken to the police department for a «document check». She was held there for almost five hours. Two administrative reports were drawn up on her: for cooperation with a foreign mass media without accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Article 22.9 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus) and participation in an unauthorized event (Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus). Her smartphone and camera were seized «for inspection within the administrative process».