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  • RSF delivers hundreds of “Postcards for Maryna” to Belarusian embassies in 7 cities, calling for the release of jailed editor Maryna Zolatava

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has concluded its “Postcards for Maryna” action by delivering hundreds of postcards, letters, and online messages in support of jailed Belarusian editor Maryna Zolatava to Belarusian embassies in seven cities around the world to mark Zolatava’s birthday. Joined by Zolatava’s family and prominent supporters, RSF has sent a clear signal to the Belarusian authorities that the international community is watching Zolatava’s case and demands the release of all 36 jailed media workers in the country.

    On 6 Novem­ber, RSF rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Paris, Lon­don, Berlin, Bern, Stock­holm, Vien­na, and Wash­ing­ton DC deliv­ered hun­dreds of mes­sages of sup­port for Zolata­va to the Belaru­sian embassies in their coun­try. The date is Zolatava’s 46th birth­day – the third birth­day she has spent behind bars, where she is serv­ing a 12-year sen­tence on nation­al secu­ri­ty charges. Edi­tor-in-chief of TUT.BY, Belarus’most pop­u­lar inde­pen­dent news site before its ban, Zolata­va has become an emblem­at­ic fig­ure, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dire state of press free­dom in Belarus, includ­ing a group of 36 jailed media work­ers.

    In Paris, RSF Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Christophe Deloire told jour­nal­ists gath­ered out­side the Belaru­sian embassy, «Dic­ta­tor Alexan­der Lukashenko would like to take advan­tage of inter­na­tion­al news to make peo­ple for­get the repres­sion and ter­ror in his coun­try. We have come here this morn­ing to say no to his regime’s pro­pa­gan­da and to show that we are con­tin­u­ing to fight for the jour­nal­ists in deten­tion in Belarus and to draw the medi­a’s atten­tion to this sit­u­a­tion. Mary­na Zolata­va is sole­ly a jour­nal­ist, the coun­try’s most famous, the edi­tor who ran the coun­try’s biggest inde­pen­dent web­site, and that’s why the regime is hit­ting her so hard.»

    Zolatava’s hus­band Vasi­ly Kishkurno, who joined the Paris action along with their two young adult chil­dren, explained how much this sup­port meant to their fam­i­ly, and called for fur­ther sol­i­dar­i­ty with Mary­na and all oth­er jailed Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists tar­get­ed for not stay­ing silent in the after­math of the 2020 elec­tion. “They need this sup­port, and can feel it even in prison, because human warmth tran­scends all walls and even bor­ders. I know one day the sun will rise in Belarus,” he said.

    “As the Lukashenko regime’s relent­less crack­down on inde­pen­dent media shows no signs of stop­ping, inter­na­tion­al mobil­i­sa­tion in sup­port of coura­geous Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists like Mary­na Zolata­va is more impor­tant than ever. This out­pour­ing of glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty makes it clear that the world will not for­get Zolata­va and her col­leagues. Our call to free Zolata­va and all jour­nal­ists detained in Belarus is loud­er than ever — and we will not stop until they are freed.

    Rebec­ca Vin­cent, RSF’s Direc­tor of Cam­paigns

    RSF offices around the world col­lect­ed post­cards over the past two months as part of its glob­al #Free­Zo­lata­va cam­paign. The “Post­cards for Mary­na” action drew high-pro­file sup­port from British actor Stephen Fry, Belaru­sian oppo­si­tion leader Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, and mem­bers of the UK All-Par­ty Par­lia­men­tary Group on Belarus.

    Ear­li­er this year, RSF’s glob­al net­work mobilised to join the Belarus Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists’ marathon of sol­i­dar­i­ty with impris­oned jour­nal­ists, show­ing sup­port from 12 RSF offices around the world. RSF con­tin­ues to cam­paign to #Free­Zo­lata­va and all jailed jour­nal­ists in Belarus as a glob­al pri­or­i­ty.

    Belarus is ranked 157th out of 180 coun­tries in RSF’s 2023 World Press Free­dom Index.

    Read more:

    In Lviv, Belaru­sians and Ukraini­ans expressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with jour­nal­ists impris­oned by Lukashen­ka

    Aliaksandr Mantsevich, head of Rehijanalnaja Hazeta, receives four-year prison sentence and huge fine

    Police arrests director of car business-related media outlet and threatens its owners

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