Press pixmen nabbed over assault pictures

Several newspaper photographers have been arrested while photographing scenes of alleged police brutality.

It is unclear how many photographers are arrested. Among them isMalaysiakini photojournalist Koh Jun Lin.

“My camera and memory card have been confiscated,” Koh said. "They said they wanted it as evidence."

At 7.50pm, Koh was released unconditonally at the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) where other detainees were being processed.

He was taken to a officer who ordered for his release without any documentation process. 

"The memory card is not here. It is still with the officer that arrested me," he said, adding that he was in possession of the camera.

The police were engaged in a cat-and-mouse game for about three hours with protesters after Bersih 3.0 organisers urged participants to disperse at 3pm.

Violence involving both the police and protesters escalated as the minutes went.

Threatened

One photographer told Malaysiakini that after he refused to delete photographs of a melee, a police personnel removed his memory card and destroyed it.

It was confirmed by Guang Ming Daily that one of their photographers was arrested while taking photographs of the process of an arrest and alleged police assault.

A Channel News Asia video cameraman has vowed to lodge a police report after he was punched.

"Furthermore, they took our tripod," said the cameraman Kenny Lew.

Meanwhile, a Merdeka Review photographer said claimed she was assaulted by four police personnel who attempted to seize her camera and mobile phone. 

"They pulled my media accreditation card and kicked it to a side. They then demanded that I leave or face arrest," she said.

Al Jazeera: Heavy handed violence

In a live crossover interview, Al Jazeera journalist Harry Fawcett reported that he and his cameraman were faced with alleged police violence as well. 

"I'm coming to you via Skype from an iPad because the Malaysian police has just busted our camera," said Fawcett.

"In a number of instances, we saw a policeman grabbing a protestor while the other would punch, knee or slap the protestor.

"We went to try to film that ourselves, and found ourselves subject to not that harsh treatment but not dissimilar.

"We were shoved and held, our camera pushed to the ground. Perhaps they were under instruction to prevent the media from filming this kind of thing," he added.

Fawcett puts the blame on the protestors for breaching the cordon, triggering the "heavy handed" violence from the police.