About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

Parliamentary security guard deletes photographs from journalist's camera

(Globe International/IFEX) - A parliamentary security guard has violated the freedom of the media by trying to censor a reporter's work.

On 29 October 2007, photojournalist Lodoi Chuluunbileg took a photo of a government Nissan car (licence number 00-54 UBZ) in the parking lot of the Mongolian Parliament building with his own camera. One of the security guards working there told Lodoi to accompany him to the guard's office, where he took the camera and then deleted photos from it, thereby violating the Media Freedom Law.

When Lodoi questioned the guard about his actions, he was told that taking photos there was not allowed.

Globe International's lawyer G. Davaakhuu contacted Parliament's security department chief, G. Lkhagvasuren, to gather more information about the incident. G. Lkhagvasuren said that people could not inspect the area around the Parliament building alone.

As a result of the incident, Globe International sent a letter to the State Security Office chief, Colonel Ts. Uugangerel. It is currently waiting for a response.