Bulgarian photo reporters are to stage a vigil against the violence used by the police on a colleague of theirs, while he was doing his duties on Wednesday.

The protest, which will be held on May 23 in front of the Interior Ministry building, is organized by Bulgaria's Photo reporters Club.

The organizers prepared a declaration, in which they criticize such an actions on the part of the police officials. The document will be sent to Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov, the Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and the Parliament's Speaker Georgi Pirinski.

We work and pay taxes for supporting the security system and we should be protected and not beaten, the reporters' declaration reads.

The protestors wrote that they expect this act of violence against the freedom of the speech to be duly punished. Otherwise, Bulgaria should be put on the list of the countries form the third world, where the journalists' work is being restricted, they said.

The reporter Emil Ivanov, who works for Express newspaper, was beaten up by court security officials while trying to take pictures of Mladen Mihalev - a key witness in the murder trial of a close associate of his.

The police hit Ivanov on the head with truncheons. The accident took place behind the court of justice's building downtown Sofia.