CHISINAU, September 7. /TASS/. Moldova’s authorities have banned a group of journalists working for the Russian internet channel LifeNews from entering the country due to the lack of their accreditation with the foreign ministry, border officials said.
"The journalists have not been accredited with the foreign ministry the way foreign journalists are required by Moldovan law," said a spokesman for the Moldovan border police.
On Monday, the LifeNews channel reported its crew had been denied permission to cross the border into Moldova.
"It is already for more than eight hours that we are in the transit zone at Chisinau airport together with my colleague Natalya Kalysheva. They have still not returned our passports. We only have a paper in our hands listing several points why we are not allowed into Moldova," LifeNews correspondent Aleksey Kazannikov was quoted as saying, adding that "the main point" in the document was the absence of a permission for special equipment the crew did not have.
Kazannikov said that a customs officer had rudely asked the journalists to explain the purpose of their trip. Then airport officials told them to fill in a customs declaration form, checked their bags and confiscated a flash drive storing Kazannikov’s report.
"An Air Moldova spokesperson told us that border guards had given them a task to bring us back to Moscow by all means and do it at our expense," the correspondent said, adding that the LifeNews crew had been asked to leave until lunchtime.