BAJ outraged by security forces interfering in the work of BelaPAN

This is the sec­ond raid of the secu­ri­ty forces on Bela­PAN since the begin­ning of the year.

Bela­PAN is the old­est non-state news agency in Belarus, which has been pro­vid­ing reli­able, accu­rate and up-to-date infor­ma­tion to the media mar­ket for decades.

Today, its employ­ees were searched and inter­ro­gat­ed as part of a crim­i­nal case on orga­niz­ing actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order (Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code). How­ev­er, the obvi­ous rea­son for its harass­ment is the gov­ern­men­t’s pol­i­cy since 2020 to destroy the inde­pen­dent media and civ­il soci­ety sec­tors in Belarus.

Since August 2020, BAJ has reg­is­tered:

497 deten­tions of jour­nal­ists, 119 of which end­ed with admin­is­tra­tive arrests, and 68 cas­es of vio­lence and injuries of jour­nal­ists.

Today, 29 media rep­re­sen­ta­tives are behind bars, at least 50 media work­ers are under crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion.

The num­ber of search­es and inspec­tions in the apart­ments of jour­nal­ists and edi­to­r­i­al offices, includ­ing the events of today, has reached 140.

More than 100  news and media web­sites have been blocked; 10 print media out­lets have been forced to stop pub­lish­ing.

BAJ calls on the author­i­ties to imme­di­ate­ly release the detained Bela­PAN employ­ees and stop the pres­sure on the news agency, which, among oth­er things, led in 2018 to the sud­den death of its head and founder Ales Lipai.

One can shut down inde­pen­dent media, detain their employ­ees, and intim­i­date peo­ple. But no one can stop thoughts and ideas.