Police handcuffed a cameraman from the commercial television station RTL Klub when they dissolved rioters following the union-sponsored protest on Kossuth tér Wednesday night. The man, who had been filming the dispersal of rioters on the square, stumbled and fell prior to a line of police officers virtually trampling on him, and one of the officers kicked his camera several metres away, according to eyewitnesses.
The cameraman’s hands were then handcuffed behind his back and he was taken to a Seventh District police station where his injuries were tended to, and he was then released. Police later claimed an error had been made and apologised to the RTL employee.
Some 300 riot police had dispersed hundreds of activists who remained on Kossuth tér after the official demonstration ended. The demonstrators threw burning torches and beer bottles at the police, who countered the attacks with truncheons. The demonstrators were then moved towards Nyugati railway station, where several of them fleetingly brought tram traffic to a halt. Police had dissolved the rioters by 9 p.m.
Magyar Hírlap observes that recent events suggest that police have launched a war on journalists.
