Updated

Dozens of journalists are rallying outside the Interior Ministry headquarters in the Ukrainian capital after the police initially refused to investigate the beating of two journalists covering an opposition rally.

Olha Snitsarchuk, a journalist with the Channel 5 television channel and her husband Vladislav Sodel, a photographer with the Kommersant daily, were punched and kicked by a group of beefy young men as the journalists attempted to record a clash between those men and opposition activists during a protest on Saturday.

Sodel told the rally Monday that several policemen first ignored his pleas to intervene and then watched indifferently as the reporters were thrown on the ground and hit, leaving Snitsarchuk with bruises on her face.

The Interior Ministry opened a probe only after a public backlash.