STATEMENT: BAJ outraged at arrest of bloggers, and calls on the authorities to abide by international standards and obligations

The blog­gers, charged with orga­niz­ing group activ­i­ties that breach pub­lic order (Art. 342 Part 1 of the Crim­i­nal Code), were arrest­ed in the midst of the polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion and the polit­i­cal pub­lic debate.

Accord­ing to the inter­na­tion­al stan­dards of free­dom of expres­sion, it is the free­dom of polit­i­cal debate that should be most pro­tect­ed.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists express­es out­rage over the arrest of blog­gers and authors of Telegram chan­nels and calls on the author­i­ties of Belarus to abide by inter­na­tion­al stan­dards and oblig­a­tions in the field of free­dom of speech.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists