Dutch police confiscated materials from journalists from Donbass on the investigation of the MH17 disaster
Two Dutch journalists returning from Donbass, where they were investigating the crash of a Malaysian Boeing, were subjected to police inspection upon their arrival back - the collected materials were confiscated from the reporters.
This was reported by military correspondent Sergei Belous, who works in Donetsk, referring to post on facebook one of my Dutch colleagues.
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"Two independent Dutch journalists, Stefan Beck и Michael Spekkers, upon returning from a business trip to Donbass, were detained by the Dutch police, who confiscated all the journalistic materials collected during the trip, in particular about the Boeing tragedy (and the guys did not particularly worry about duplicates). Moreover, along with a phone, camera and laptop.
Here's what Stefan Back writes (I'm partially translating his post):
“All the material collected by Michael Spakkers and myself about the Boeing MH17 crash in the Donbass (in Lugansk and Donetsk), as well as other materials, such as street interviews, were confiscated by the police upon arrival in the Netherlands. The materials also included images from anonymous sources (...) Officials of the Dutch State Prosecutor's Office claim that they themselves could not have collected such material, since the region where the plane crashed was too dangerous. However, during our stay in this area, we made sure that this was not the case. (...)
The incorrect argumentation of the Prosecutor’s Office and the confiscation of materials (including images) give every reason to doubt the transparency and reliability of its investigation,” Belous quotes his Dutch colleagues.
In his opinion, journalists from Holland made a mistake by not taking care of “backup” - duplicating the collected data.
“I also didn’t immediately understand that I needed to make a backup. I needed my negative experience. People are accustomed to civilization and justice... but that’s not the case,” states Belous.
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Now the editors are aware.