Journalist criminally detained in Baranavichy for sending photos to ‘extremist media’

Appar­ent­ly, the case con­cerns Yury Hantsare­vich – a jour­nal­ist with this name is list­ed among the authors of the pub­li­ca­tion, and his pho­to on social media fea­tures the same per­son as in the “repen­tant” video, pub­lished by ‘Obrat­naya storona’. The Intex-Press edi­to­r­i­al board told Medi­a­zona that Hantsare­vich was sen­tenced to 10 days of arrest on admin­is­tra­tive charges. The rea­son for deten­tion is unknown.

In the “repen­tant” video, the cor­re­spon­dent says he sent pho­tos of “alleged­ly Russ­ian mil­i­tary equip­ment” to Zerka­lo and RFE/RL Belarus media out­lets.

“On Feb­ru­ary 24, I took a screen­shot on the windy.com weath­er web­site, which alleged­ly showed Russ­ian mil­i­tary equip­ment. I sent the screen­shot to the edi­to­r­i­al office of Tut.by, cur­rent­ly Zerkalo.io. On March 1, approach­ing the Baranavichy mil­i­tary air­port, I took a pic­ture, pre­sum­ably of a Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion mil­i­tary air­craft. I bor­rowed a cam­era from the edi­to­r­i­al office and took pho­tos with it. The fol­low­ing day, I sent them to the chat-bot of the RFE/RL Belarus edi­to­r­i­al office with the note «Baranavichy air­field,» said Hantsare­vich.

Media work­ers behind bars. Cur­rent post address­es 

Repres­sions against jour­nal­ists in Belarus, 2022 (chart)