November 5 — Stand Up for Journalists!

In Belarus, this year’s main threat is the crim­i­nal case launched against promi­nent jour­nal­ists and edi­tors of inde­pen­dent media.

On August 7–9, the police searched the offices of TUT.BY, Bela­PAN news agency and oth­er media out­lets, as well as jour­nal­ists’ pri­vate apart­ments.

The author­i­ties detained Mary­na Zolata­va, chief edi­tor of TUT.BY, TUT.BY’s edi­tors Han­na Kalty­hi­na, Hali­na Ulasik, and Han­na Yarma­chonak, Bela­PAN’s chief edi­tor Iry­na Leushy­na and its com­men­ta­tor on inter­na­tion­al affairs Tat­siana Kar­avenko­va, Deutsche Welle’s cor­re­spon­dent Pauliuk Byk­ous­ki, and edi­tor of Belorusy i Rynok web­site Ali­ak­sei Zhukau.

They all spent sev­er­al days behind bars. Being sus­pects in the case, most of them are under trav­el restric­tions.

The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee sus­pects jour­nal­ists of unau­tho­rized access to com­put­er infor­ma­tion of BelTA, state-owned news agency. Inde­pen­dent ana­lysts are con­vinced that BelTA case is an attempt to intim­i­date and take the lead­ing non-state media under con­trol.

The jour­nal­ists are fac­ing fines and even jail terms. Today we express our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the jour­nal­ists and urge the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to dis­miss the crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings with­out delay!

November 5 — Stand Up for Journalists!

Join us in action! Share infor­ma­tion and express sol­i­dar­i­ty on your web­site and in your social media!

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