This morning, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon received the below email from photojournalist Nicole Tung, who has been covering the refugee crisis on the Greek island of Lesbos.
We’ve edited Nicole’s note for clarity and length.
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Hi Joel,
Hope this finds you well… I just wanted to report an incident (well, there have been a few, but none that quite took the cake as it did today) from here in Lesbos.
Myself and AFP photographer Aris Messinis were physically assaulted today by Greek Lifeguards (Lifeguard Hellas is the name of their group) on a beach near Molyvos in Lesbos. One Arab volunteer told us not to shoot pictures there and when we argued back that we were allowed to, and that it’s our job, etc. etc. he called out over his megaphone to the lifeguards to ‘come and kick these people [us photographers] out,’ - there were at least 7-8 other journalists there and other volunteers/medics.
At least three lifeguards came over and started arguing with Aris, and then started hitting him, trying to drag him onto the ground. I realized what was happening so I started shooting pictures of the commotion - at which point the Arab volunteer charged at me, slapped my camera to the ground, stepped on it, and lunged for me.
I tried getting my camera off the ground, and he shoved me down, pushing me in the back. When I got back up, I tried pushing him away, then he grabbed me at the throat and pushed me off again. I tried getting the lifeguards off Aris as one of them had him in a chokehold.
As I mentioned, this isn’t the first time journalists have had issues with the volunteers here - many are here doing a wonderful job, others are not really understanding the role of the press and get upset when we take pictures of people coming off boats. Granted, some journalists have been getting in the way and I understand that - but when we’re trying to take photos and not getting in anyone’s way, some take it upon themselves to prevent us from doing our jobs for no real reason.
Warmest wishes,
Nicole
p.s. This is one of the pics I took of the lifeguard roughing Aris up.