The court did not find any corpus delicti in the actions of the journalist who covered the “besrochnoch” action. • OVD-Info • RIMA

The court did not find any corpus delicti in the actions of the journalist who covered the “besrochnoch” action.

The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow dismissed an administrative case against Denis Styazhkin, a journalist from the Sota.vision publication, for filming an “indefinite protest” rally. This was reported to OVD-Info by the journalist's defender Irina Yatsenko.

Employees of the “E” center drew up a protocol against Styazhkin under the article on violation by the participant of the rules for holding a public event (part 5 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) after watching the video on the Internet. It follows from the video that the journalist was filming the action and commenting on what was happening. The police considered this a violation and pointed out that Styazhkin, as part of a group of people, shouted slogans, and also videotaped the action, thereby attracting the attention of passers-by.

During the meeting, the judge studied the same video and decided that Styazhkin was not a participant in the action and did not shout out slogans. Defender Irina Yatsenko was able to prove that Styazhkin was present at the action on January 30 as a journalist on the instructions of the editors.

As a result, the court came to the conclusion that there were no elements of an administrative offense in Styazhkin's actions.

This is not the first time a journalist has been detained during a protest action and an administrative case has been brought against him.
During a rally in support of Ivan Golunov on June 7, the police detained 11 journalists, but later they were all released without drawing up protocols.
Police detained 40 journalists during a march against trumped-up cases on June 12, according to Meduza . Among the detainees, in particular, were journalists from Kommersant, Vedomosti, Dozhd, Meduza, MBKh Media and other publications.
In December 2018, the Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg dismissed the case of a journalist who was detained during a rally on September 9.