Journalist accused of organizing a meeting during quarantine

On March 29, national newspaper "Vremya" reporter for   West Kazakhstan region Zlata Udovichenko was called to the department of sanitary and epidemiological control of the Baiterek district. The grounds for that was a claim filed against the journalist by one of the local residents. The woman accused Zlata Udovichenko of gathering people to a meeting at the time of quarantine.

- I did not call anyone to this meeting. I have no idea why that woman thinks that it was me who initiated the meeting,  - Zlata Udovichenko told Adil Soz . - The situation was as follows. One of the village newspapers published an announcement that on March 25 at 3 PM a meeting of the local community will be held in the club (the cultural center) of the village of Trekino to discuss renaming the village.  I was added to one of the chats of the residents of this village in order to keep me informed. Shortly before the planned meeting a new information was published in the chat. It said that since the region got into COVID-19 "red zone" the meeting would probably be held online.  Since this message was not official, I decided to double-check it and clarify  how I could take part in it. On March 24, on the eve of the meeting day I arrived in the Trekino village. There was no one in the akimat (mayor's office), but I managed to meet with the deputy of the village akim (mayor). He said that he himself could not really understand how that meeting would be held. He also said that it was the idea of ​​the local department of internal policy to conduct the meeting as a zoom conference. I called the representative of that department, and he said that their department had nothing to do with that issue at all. However, 5-10 minutes later, he called me back and said that he had clarified the situation and that the meeting would take place on the same day and hour and  place as it had been announced earlier.  But, since the epidemic situation has changed, the meeting would be held not inside , but outside the club. I told about it in the chat  of the  village residents, since many of the chat participants could not understand whether the meeting would take place or not.

The next day, when villagers gathered near the cultural center, some people accused  Udovichenko  of provocation. According to them it was she who  called people to gather near the cultural center. The local police took her to the police station and drew up an interrogation report. When the journalist asked to name the grounds for interrogation, the polcemen sadi that there was no investigation and they just wanted to  clarify the situation.

On Monday, March 29, an unknown woman called Udovichenko. She introduced herself as an employee of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision Department of the Bayterek district and said that some people filed a claim against Udovichenko. She accused the journalist of gathering people on the square and  violating quarantine restrictions. Besides the woman said that she had documentary evidence received from the police office. Udovichenko told her that she had not call anyone to gather on her own initiative. The sanitary department  employee just offered the journalist to come to the department and to write an explanatory note.