Poland’s parliament has been blocked by protesters in support for opposition lawmakers unhappy about new rules restricting press reporting.
The opposition objects to government plans to limit the number of journalists allowed to cover parliamentary proceedings.
The lawmakers’ protest delayed a budget vote, which was later held away from the main parliament chamber.
Hundreds of police surrounded protesters in a late-night stand-off.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), earlier denounced the protest as “hooliganism”.
“We will not allow ourselves to be terrorized,” he said.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski left parliament with the PiS PM Beata Szydlo at about 03:00AM local time.
Opposition lawmaker Jerzy Meysztowicz told the TVN24 news channel that police used tear gas to clear a passage through protesters for their official vehicle.
The opposition accused the government of passing 2017 budget unlawfully on December 16 by transferring the key vote to a smaller hall and excluding the press.
It was the first since the restoration of democracy in 1989 that such a vote was held outside the main chamber of parliament.
Image source Getty Images
Enough lawmakers were present for the budget vote to be valid, according to Jaroslaw Kaczynski and other PiS members, but the opposition demanded a rerun of the vote in the main parliament chamber next week.
“There is no proof that a quorum of lawmakers was present. We suspect that people who were not allowed to vote took part,” said leader of the opposition Nowoczesna party Ryszard Petru.
The ruling party has been accused of restricting press freedom since coming to power in 2015.
In 2017 only a few reporters will be allowed into parliament.
Only five selected Polish TV stations will be permitted to make recordings of parliamentary sessions.
The government argues that it does not believe the measures are restrictive.
Supporters of the move argue it will stop lawmakers from being accosted by journalists inside the parliamentary building.
Last night’s demonstration began when an opposition lawmaker held aloft a placard reading “free media”.
He was told by Speaker Marek Kuchcinski, who is a PiS member, that he would no longer be allowed to attend parliamentary proceedings.
However, by then other opposition lawmakers converged on the podium to demand press freedom and an end to censorship.
It is believed to be the first protest of its kind in the Polish parliament for 10 years.
The proposed new rules – due to be enforced in 2017 – ban all recording of parliamentary sessions except by the five selected television stations. They also restrict the number of reporters permitted to enter the building.
Human rights campaigners have also condemned the plans, with former dissident Seweryn Blumsztajn condemning them as a “return to communist-era practices”.
The trial of Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul has been adjourned until April 1.
The journalists, who are charged with revealing state secrets, were arrested in November 2015 over a report alleging that the Turkish government had tried to ship arms to Islamists in Syria.
Can Dundar and Erdem Gul deny the charges but face possible life sentences if found guilty.
Their supporters say the case is a major test of press freedom in Turkey.
The Turkish government has come under increasing international criticism over its treatment of journalists.
Earlier this month, Turkish police raided the offices of the country’s biggest newspaper, Zaman, hours after a court ruling placed it under state control.
Over 100 reporters and observers attended the opening session of the trial on March 25.
Prosecutors then asked the judge for a closed hearing, a request which the judge approved, after a brief adjournment.
A Human Rights Watch observer present in the court called the decision “a travesty of justice”.
The adjournment came after more than a dozen opposition lawmakers refused to leave the courtroom. The judges filed a complaint against them for attempting to influence the trial.
Can Dundar, Cumhuriyet‘s editor-in-chief, and Erdem Gul, Ankara bureau chief, were arrested in November 2015.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally filed a criminal complaint against the two journalists.
Can Dundar and Erdem Gul were held in pre-trial detention but were released in February after the Constitutional Court ruled their rights to liberty and free expression had been violated.
In a statement given just before the trial, Can Dundar said the government was trying to intimidate Turkey’s journalists.
“There is an effort to arrest an entire profession and the public – what foreigners call a <<chilling effect>>,” he said.
“What is trying to be created is a mechanism of self-censorship and an increasing empire of fear.”
Campaigners say the case is politically motivated and part of a growing crackdown on media critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On March 24, dozens of prominent writers published an open letter to PM Ahmet Davutoglu, urging the government to drop the charges against the Cumhuriyet journalists.
“We believe that Can Dundar and Erdem Gul are facing life in prison simply for carrying out their legitimate work as journalists,” they said.
The letter also voiced concern over the “increasing climate of fear and censorship and the stifling of critical voices in Turkey”.
Zaman newspaper is closely linked to the Hizmet movement of influential US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The government says Hizmet is a “terrorist” group aiming to overthrow President Erdogan.
Fethullah Gulen was once an ally of Recep Tayyip Erdogan but is now seen by the Turkish President as a threat to his authority.
According to the 2015 Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, Turkey ranks 149th amongst the 180 countries.
Media organizations in Turkey say that more than 30 journalists are currently behind bars and most are of Kurdish origin.
However, the government argues journalism in Turkey is among the most free in the world.
Prominent Turkish journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, from the newspaper Cumhuriyet, are due to go on trial charged with revealing state secrets.
They were arrested in November 2015 over a report alleging that the Turkish government had tried to ship arms to Islamists in Syria.
Can Dundar and Erdem Gul deny the charges but face possible life sentences if found guilty.
Supporters of the two journalists say the case is an important test of press freedom in Turkey.
The Turkish government has come under increasing international criticism over its treatment of journalists.
Earlier this month, Turkish police raided the offices of the country’s biggest newspaper, Zaman, hours after a court ruling placed it under state control.
Photo AP
Can Dundar, Cumhuriyet‘s editor-in-chief, and Erdem Gul, Ankara bureau chief, were arrested in November 2015.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally filed a criminal complaint against the Cumhuriyet journalists.
They were held on pre-trial detention but were released in February after the Constitutional Court ruled their rights to liberty and free expression had been violated.
Can Dundar said the government was trying to intimidate Turkey’s journalists.
“There’s an effort to arrest an entire profession and the public – what foreigners call a <<chilling effect>>,” he said.
“What’s trying to be created is a mechanism of self-censorship and an increasing empire of fear.”
Campaigners say the case is politically motivated and part of a growing crackdown on media critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On March 24, dozens of prominent writers published an open letter to PM Ahmet Davutoglu, urging the government to drop the charges against the Cumhuriyet journalists.
“We believe that Can Dundar and Erdem Gul are facing life in prison simply for carrying out their legitimate work as journalists,” they said.
The letter also voiced concern over the “increasing climate of fear and censorship and the stifling of critical voices in Turkey”.
Zaman newspaper is closely linked to the Hizmet movement of influential US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The government says Hizmet is a “terrorist” group aiming to overthrow Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Fethullah Gulen was once an ally of Recep Tayyip Erdogan but is now seen by the Turkish President as a threat to his authority.
Faraz Shauketaly, a reporter from Sri Lanka’s newspaper Sunday Leader, has been shot by a group of unidentified men at his home near the capital, Colombo.
Faraz Shauketaly, 52, who holds dual British and Sri Lankan citizenship, was rushed to hospital after being shot in the neck.
A doctor who treated Faraz Shauketaly said the journalist was now out of danger.
Rights groups say more than a dozen media employees have been killed in Sri Lanka over the past decade.
None of the murders has been solved.
Faraz Shauketaly was on the phone to a colleague at the Sunday Leader on Friday evening at his home in Mount Lavinia when the call was cut.
Shortly afterwards he answered a call and said he had been shot in the neck by three intruders, who had then escaped.
A group of foreign lodgers at his house said he was covered in blood and calling for help.
Faraz Shauketaly, a reporter from Sri Lanka’s newspaper Sunday Leader, has been shot by a group of unidentified men at his home near Colombo
Faraz Shauketaly was taken to intensive care, where doctors pronounced him out of danger and have been working to remove a bullet.
He had voiced fears that his investigative reporting might be putting him in danger, especially after strangers had called at his house recently asking for his whereabouts.
Four years ago, the Sunday Leader’s editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was shot dead by a group of masked men on motorbikes.
The case, which has never been solved, highlighted the dismal state of press freedom in the country, analysts said.
The Sunday Leader had long had a reputation for being outspokenly anti-government.
Its profile changed last year when it was bought by a well-connected businessman and retracted some of its articles, but it still does a considerable amount of investigative reporting.
Last month, Sri Lanka was placed 162nd out of 179 in a Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.
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