In Kyiv, a journalist from Ukrainian television station Channel 5 has told euronews that security officials beat him and his crew.
Azad Safarov told euronews that they had been filming what was happening near government buildings when they were approached by security forces.
After Safarov told them he was a journalist, he was hit with a truncheon on the hand holding his microphone. The microphone broke from the blows. Officers continued to beat him with truncheons and fists to his face. An operator, whose camera was smashed, was beaten with batons.
A photographer for the Reuters news agency was also wounded during Tuesday’s clashes which have claimed the lives of at least five protesters and a police officer who died from a gunshot wound to the neck, according to the Interior Ministry.
In December, euronews cameraman Roman Kupriyanov was beaten by riot police while covering a demonstration in Kyiv.
He was one of several media personnel who claim to have been deliberately targeted by riot police.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented 13 cases in which the police beat journalists or medical workers, shot them with rubber bullets, or injured them with stun grenades during last month’s clashes.
Ukrainian non-governmental groups documented more than 60 such cases.
Available evidence suggests that in many cases police deliberately targeted journalists and medics who were not participating in the protests, according to HRW.
