EFJ demands release of 15 detained journalists in Belarus

On 26 and 27 Sep­tem­ber, 15 jour­nal­ists cov­er­ing mass demon­stra­tions in Belarus were arrest­ed in Min­sk, Grod­no and Mahilou. Most were released, but four of them, includ­ing Russ­ian jour­nal­ist Anas­ta­sia Alshan­skaya, 26 years old, remain in prison. They join the list of eleven oth­er jour­nal­ists who were still in deten­tion.

The EFJ joins its Belaru­sian affil­i­ate, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (BAJ), in demand­ing the imme­di­ate release of these 15 jour­nal­ists:

1. Siarhei Shchurko
2. Yauhen Merkis
3. Mak­sim Nest­serkau
4. Mikalai Mam­inau
5. Andrei Yakimush
6. Zmitser Salauy­ou
7. Ales Lubianchuk
8. Dzia­n­is Han­charen­ka
9. Pavel Pat­a­pau
10. Maria Hryts
11. Ale­na Dounar
12. Anas­ta­sia Alshan­skaya
13. Uladz­imir Lapt­se­vich
14. Artur Pagasian
15. Ihar Remzik

Accord­ing to BAJ mon­i­tor­ing, since the fraud­u­lent pres­i­den­tial elec­tions of 9 August, 206 jour­nal­ists have been detained in Belarus just for doing their job.

The EFJ and BAJ call on the OSCE and the Euro­pean Union, which has not yet tak­en any sanc­tions, to pun­ish those respon­si­ble for press free­dom vio­la­tions in Belarus.

We call on Belaru­sian author­i­ties to release imme­di­ate­ly russ­ian jour­nal­ist Anas­ta­sia Olshan­skaya arrest­ed in Min­sk on 26 Sep­tem­ber pic.twitter.com/K8hNiwTWj4

— EFJ (@EFJEUROPE) Sep­tem­ber 27, 2020