The RT France journalists — correspondent David Khalifa and cameraman Jordi Demory — were detained at the border on Monday. The police of the Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland said they detained the journalists for illegal presence in the emergency zone.
The court stated that the journalists were fined 1,200 zloty ($293) each and will have to spend 12 days under arrest if they do not pay.
Meanwhile, the RT Telegram channel confirmed that each of the journalists had been fined roughly $300.
RT France editor-in-chief, Ksenia Fedorova, expressed the hope that the detention of the film crew did not relate to the fact that the journalists work for RT, adding that they arrived at the border with relevant IDs. Fedorova also said the journalists might not have known about the three-kilometre emergency zone at the border.
Reporters Without Borders Denounces Arrest of RT France Journalists in Poland
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned on Tuesday the detention of two RT France journalists in Poland, criticizing the country's restrictions on freedom of the press amid the ongoing migration crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border.
"[The RSF] condemns the arbitrary arrest of #RTFrance reporters David Khalifa & Jordi Demory in the zone close to the #Belarus border, while they were covering the migration crisis. Driven away by the police, they couldn't do their work as journalists," the watchdog tweeted.
RSF went on to criticize the "disproportionate" restrictions of Poland's state of emergency, declared by the country in September.
"Having led to several arrests of journalists, they must be not just eased, but simply abandoned in the name of the right to information," the group stated.
Facing an influx of Middle Eastern migrants from Belarus, Poland established a 1.8 mile prohibited zone at the border in September, where neither journalists nor NGOs are allowed to enter.
Last week, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said that his ministry had prepared a bill to amend the border protection law to extend provisions in the country's border areas that are currently in place under a state of emergency. The amendment would allow journalists to visit the border areas, albeit with the border service's approval for each trip.
"[The RSF] condemns the arbitrary arrest of #RTFrance reporters David Khalifa & Jordi Demory in the zone close to the #Belarus border, while they were covering the migration crisis. Driven away by the police, they couldn't do their work as journalists," the watchdog tweeted.
RSF went on to criticize the "disproportionate" restrictions of Poland's state of emergency, declared by the country in September.
"Having led to several arrests of journalists, they must be not just eased, but simply abandoned in the name of the right to information," the group stated.
Facing an influx of Middle Eastern migrants from Belarus, Poland established a 1.8 mile prohibited zone at the border in September, where neither journalists nor NGOs are allowed to enter.
Last week, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said that his ministry had prepared a bill to amend the border protection law to extend provisions in the country's border areas that are currently in place under a state of emergency. The amendment would allow journalists to visit the border areas, albeit with the border service's approval for each trip.