MINSK, Belarus (AP) — An Australian television journalist has been detained at Minsk airport as he prepared to leave Belarus.
The detention was reported by a representative of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, who said Amos Roberts of Australian SBS TV had called him from the airport.
The representative, Ilya Kuznetsov, said border guards had confiscated the journalist's television camera, computer and all the material he had gathered during a week of reporting before Sunday's parliamentary election in Belarus, where an authoritarian president has little tolerance for independent media.
The border guards refused to comment.
Kuznetsov said the detention prevented Roberts from flying to Warsaw on Friday afternoon and he would be unable to leave Belarus until Saturday at the earliest. It was not yet known whether his equipment would be returned.
