Orwell would be surprised: why journalists are jailed in Belarus. Online briefing

On June 2, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. CET, there will be an online brief­ing via Zoom with the fam­i­lies and col­leagues of jour­nal­ists who are in prison for their pro­fes­sion­al work.

Mass repres­sions against jour­nal­ists and free­dom of speech con­tin­ue in Belarus. In the con­text of the war in Ukraine, the per­se­cu­tion of the Belaru­sian media has increased. Search­es with seizure, deten­tions with vio­lence, kid­nap­pings and closed tri­als are tak­ing place all over the coun­try.

Absurd charges are brought against jour­nal­ists, such as pho­tograph­ing Russ­ian mil­i­tary equip­ment, run­ning “extrem­ist for­ma­tions”, and trea­son against the state. More­over, new charges can be pre­sent­ed when a per­son is already serv­ing a sen­tence in prison, as hap­pened to Bel­sat TV chan­nel jour­nal­ist Kate­ri­na Andree­va.

Next closed tri­als of jour­nal­ists, rec­og­nized as polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, will be held from June 6, 2022. They face up to 15 years in prison.

Speak­ers:

• Igor Ilyash, hus­band of Kate­ri­na Andree­va, jour­nal­ist

• Alexan­der Lukashuk, direc­tor of the Belarus Ser­vice of Radio «Lib­er­ty”

• Anas­tasiya Rou­da, direc­tor of the news­pa­per «Nasha Niva”

• Sergei Pul­sha, edi­tor of the news­pa­per “Novy Chas”

Work­ing lan­guages: Belaru­sian, Russ­ian, Eng­lish (simul­ta­ne­ous inter­pre­ta­tion)

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