On May 1, in the Pochayiv Monastery, one of the priests together with a guard prohibited a cameraman of Brody Television to video a pilgrimage in which he participated and confiscated his video camera by force.
On May 1, on an initiative of Protopriest Stepan Shyra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate of the town of Brody, a walking pilgrimage to the Ukrainian shrine, the ”Holy Mount of Pochayiv” was organized. Approximately, at two p.m., the pilgrims arrived in Pochayiv. At the entrance to the monastery, the guards prohibited the cameraman of the Brody Television to video “until he receives permission from the administration.” The cameraman waited for 40 minutes but no one came up to him to give the permission.
According to the cameraman, in order not to make the situation more tense, all the pilgrims together with the priests from Brody and the cameraman of RK TRK Brody left the monastery to serve a prayer outside its territory. However, during the reading of the Gospel, a monk and the chief guard came out and took away the camera from the cameraman by force without explaining anything.
According to the cameraman, the chief guard held him for a few seconds to let the unknown monk come back to the monastery.
Protopriest Steman Shyra of the UOC-KP and a visitor from Lviv, Fr. Roman, and Secretary of the Brody Town Council, Mykhailo Chunhin, began to defend the cameraman. The local police tried to settle the conflict.
“A police task force came from the town of Kremenets. After all the statements were submitted and witnesses were interrogated, the camera was returned but the recording of the prayer service was erased,” said the cameraman.