A journalist for RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Naira Bulghadarian, was attacked by a masked police officer while covering continuing opposition protesters in Yerevan on Sunday.
The officer wearing a black balaclava grabbed and threw away Bulghadarian’s camera which was steaming live video for Azatutyun TV from the city’s central Republic Square.
Bulghadarian immediately complained to Colonel Valeri Osipian, a deputy chief of Yerevan’s police department coordinating police actions at the scene, about the attack. “He did a very bad thing,” said Osipian. “Show me him and we will punish him.”
“The police are carrying out a special operation here,” he added. “Please stay now at a section [of the square] where your cameras won’t be damaged.”
Several other police officers beat up a broadcast producer for RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Anatoly Yeghiazarian, in another Yerevan square on Saturday night. Yeghiazarian was attacked as he tried to film with his mobile phone security forces dispersing protesters’ cars blocking the square.