At least four journalists were detained in Russia last week while reporting on gatherings to mourn the unexpected death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, according to reports.
Navalny was 47 when he died on February 16 in a Siberian penal colony, sparking impromptu mourning gatherings and makeshift memorials around the country.
At least four journalists were briefly detained while covering those events on February 16 and 17, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom group.
Three of the detained journalists work for the independent outlet RusNews. The fourth works for the independent outlet Novaya Gazeta, according to CPJ.
In one incident, Yulia Petrova, a RusNews correspondent, told CPJ that she was briefly detained while doing a live broadcast from a Moscow square where people were laying flowers by a monument to victims of Soviet-era political repression.
The New York-based CPJ condemned the detentions in a statement.
"The detention of at least four journalists covering the public expression of mourning by Russian people after the announcement of the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny is not surprising, given the Russian authorities' long history of harassing journalists covering pro-Navalny demonstrations," Gulnoza Said, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a Wednesday statement.
Over the past few years, Russian authorities have detained dozens of journalists who were covering pro-Navalny protests, according to CPJ data.
"Journalists should be able to report on tributes to Navalny and freely cover events of public interest without fear of being detained," Said added in the statement.
On top of the four journalists detained, about 400 people across more than 35 Russian cities were detained while attending Navalny memorials in the days following his death, according to OVD-Info, a group that tracks political arrests.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to VOA's email requesting comment.
