The Police “Barricaded” Journalists in The Parliament’s Press Room “For Security Reasons”

The journalists accredited in the parliament, who came on Wednesday, January 20, to cover the parliament’s plenary meeting, were blocked for over 5 hours in the parliament’s press room. Several reporters wrote about it on social networks and communicated about it in newscasts and reports. Journalists wondered why they weren’t evacuated from the building so that they could continue their work. Police employees ordered them not to leave the room for security reasons.

In the newscasts aired in the evening on Wednesday, the journalists accredited in the parliament told about their situation in alarming terms: “The media have been blocked here, in the parliament building, for several hours. We are not allowed to go out or to come near the windows.” (Dumitrita Ciuvaga, reporter for Publika TV); “… It is nearly impossible to breathe here, in the parliament. The media are still barricaded in the parliament’s press room.” (Ileana Pirgaru, reporter for TVR Moldova); “… We are still blocked here, in the press room. We are not allowed to go out, especially now that protesters entered the parliament building (…). Also, we are not even allowed to come near the windows so as not to provoke the protesters who are outside.” (Speranta State, reporter for ProTV).

Media Azi contacted other journalists as well, who confirmed that the hours that they spent in the parliament building were very tense:

Ion Bologan, privesc.eu: “The door was not closed, but the police were in the hall and told us to stay in the room. We were there up until around 22.00-23.00, when protesters left and we could go out through a police cordon.”

Nata Sarioglo, reporter for TV 7: “I came to the parliament yesterday before 15.00, not suspecting that together with about 30 colleagues from other channels I will be able to get out of there only about six hours later. Those six hours were tense. Initially, when the first police cordon was broken behind the parliament, we watched everything through the window, and we even filmed from there. We were immediately told that we can’t leave the room or the parliament building, as it would put our lives in danger. We only could go to the restroom. The parliament’s press service was also in the press room. We were all alerted, ready to leave the building at any moment. At some point we wondered why we were not evacuated as MPs were. Smoke bombs were thrown in the corridors, but I still don’t know who did it, the protesters or the police.”

When we asked whether there was any way to evacuate journalists from the parliament’s press room, a representative of the parliament’s press service said it was impossible: “The door wasn’t closed. The law enforcement recommended us not to leave the room because they couldn’t ensure our safety. Anyone could go out if they wanted, but the police said it would be better for our safety to stay there.”

We addressed with the same question the General Police Inspectorate’s press officer Mariana Betivu. Initially she said she had to contact her boss, but later she couldn’t give us any details, saying we should call later, because: “I still don’t have an answer. I can’t get in touch with the boss.” The Inspectorate’s website posted a press release about the Wednesday protests from the parliament, but it mentions nothing about the journalists blocked in the parliament.
 
Foto source: Ion Bologan/Facebook