Statement of the Belarusian Association of Journalists and Belarusian Pen Center on Conviction of Maryna Zolatava

Mary­na Zolata­va is the only per­son who was tried in the so-called «BelTA case». Oth­er jour­nal­ists (at least 14 peo­ple), who had been accused of unau­tho­rized access to infor­ma­tion of the state news agency (Art. 349 Part 2 of the Crim­i­nal Code), were exempt from crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty and had to pay heavy admin­is­tra­tive fines and the dam­ages to BelTA and SB.Belarus today. The pro­ce­dure used to deter­mine the amount of com­pen­sa­tion can not be con­sid­ered fair and rea­son­able.

From the ear­ly stages of the «BelTA case», the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and oth­er human rights orga­ni­za­tions linked it with the pres­sure on free­dom of speech. Search­es in apart­ments of jour­nal­ists and media offices, short-term deten­tions of jour­nal­ists and edi­tors (most­ly — women), and seizure of pro­fes­sion­al equip­ment in the course of the pre­lim­i­nary inves­ti­ga­tion of the crim­i­nal case were clear­ly exces­sive and aimed to intim­i­date the jour­nal­is­tic com­mu­ni­ty.

Dur­ing the tri­al Zolata­va learned that her and some of her col­leagues’ phones had been tapped long before the start of the crim­i­nal case. Sev­er­al jour­nal­ists told the court they had been pres­sured by the Inves­ti­ga­tion Com­mit­tee to give tes­ti­mo­ny against Mary­na Zolata­va.

The very charges of «dere­lic­tion of duty» look like an attempt to get her con­vict­ed by any means. Unrea­son­ably scruti­nous per­son­al search of vis­i­tors dur­ing the tri­al is anoth­er evi­dence of the polit­i­cal nature of the case.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and the Belaru­sian PEN Cen­ter urge the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to:

• imme­di­ate­ly cease the dis­pro­por­tion­ate inter­fer­ence of gov­ern­ment bod­ies in the work of jour­nal­ists and inde­pen­dent media;

• take mea­sures to reverse the sen­tence and acquit Mary­na Zolata­va.

We are con­fi­dent that dra­con­ian mea­sures against the jour­nal­ists who were involved in the «BelTA case» will not affect the edi­to­r­i­al poli­cies of inde­pen­dent media.

March 4, 2019

Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists

Belaru­sian PEN Cen­ter

Human Rights Cen­ter «Vias­na»   

Legal Ini­tia­tive

Iden­ti­ty and Law

FORB Ini­tia­tive 

Cen­ter for Legal Trans­for­ma­tion

Belaru­sian Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter

Sol­i­dar­i­ty Com­mit­tee  

The Assem­bly of Non-Gov­ern­men­tal Orga­ni­za­tions

Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee

Human Con­stan­ta

Guilty: Zolatava to Pay a Fine and BelTA Costs

Belarus website editor slapped with heavy fine