Moldova Seizes Russian Sports Journalists Passports Ahead of UEFA Qualifier

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Two Russian television journalists had their passports seized in Moldova when they arrived in the capital city of Chisinau on Wednesday to cover a Moldova-Russia qualifier match, ahead of the 2016 UEFA Euro Championship, the channel’s editor-in-chief said.

Moldova Football Federation (MFF) spokesman Victor Daghi told RIA Novosti earlier that Rossiya 24 television’s cameraman Ilya Nalyotov and sound editor Andrei Urchuk had been banned from the East European country at the request of the Moldovan Security Service. In its turn, the security agency said the decision had been made by the Interior Ministry’s Migration Bureau.

"The situation is not as critical as it seems… The camera crew were indeed prevented from going to Chisinau – the cameraman and the sound editor are in the customs zone, their passports have been seized – but they have not been officially barred from entering Moldova," Yevgeny Bekasov, editor-in-chief of Rossiya 24, said.

He added the camera crew had been accredited for the October 9 match by MFF, who had assured the journalists that they would not encounter any difficulties. "It is yet another attack on freedom of speech," Bekasov claimed.

Russian TV journalists from the NTV channel were detained at Chisinau airport and deported to Moscow over the weekend. Last March, a camera crew from the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) were barred from reporting on local elections in southern Moldova’s Gagauzia autonomous region.