BAJ strongly condemns verdict against journalists Daria Chultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva

Jour­nal­ists Daria Chultso­va and Kat­siary­na Andreye­va (Bakhvala­va) were sen­tenced to 2 years in stan­dard secu­ri­ty prison. This deci­sion was pro­nounced by Frun­zen­s­ki dis­trict court of Min­sk judge Natalia Buhuk. Kat­siary­na and Daria were stream­ing on 15 Novem­ber 2020 from the «Square of Changes». Today they were found guilty under Arti­cle 342 part 1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (orga­niz­ing and prepar­ing activ­i­ties that gross­ly vio­late the pub­lic order).

We con­sid­er the ver­dict as polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed, aim­ing to intim­i­date all media work­ers so they stop doing their job of report­ing on social­ly impor­tants events in the coun­try, which in fact means a ban on the pro­fes­sion.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists reit­er­ates that free­dom of expres­sion and the right to impart infor­ma­tion are guar­an­teed by the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Repub­lic of Belarus and the inter­na­tion­al legal oblig­a­tions of Belarus (in par­tic­u­lar, Arti­cle 19 of the Inter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Polit­i­cal Rights).

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists demands:

- to revise the ver­dict on the case of Bel­sat jour­nal­ists Daria Chultso­va and Kat­siary­na Andreye­va (Bakhvala­va);

- to release jour­nal­ists Daria Chultso­va and Kat­siary­na Andreye­va (Bakhvala­va) from cus­tody;

- to stop the per­se­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists and media in the coun­try.

We call on the Belaru­sian and inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to join these demands.