A number of Georgian journalists claim they were attacked by a Special Forces police unit who broke up a protest on 26 May. Officers surrounded them and inflicted verbal and physical abuse while removing video equipment and making arrests. A number of journalists were detained for several hours. Beka Sivsivadze, from the independent newspaper, Asaval-Dasavali, claimed: “I told them that we were the journalists but they beat us harder when they heard it.”