Belarus: leaders of journalists’ organisations in Europe call on heads of governments to take action

On the ini­tia­tive of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ) the lead­ers of 50 jour­nal­ists’ organ­i­sa­tions in 34 coun­tries in Europe today sent a joint let­ter to Euro­pean Heads of State and Gov­ern­ment about the sit­u­a­tion in Belarus, on a very sym­bol­ic day.

Thurs­day 25 March, known as Free­dom Day, is an unof­fi­cial pub­lic hol­i­day mark­ing Belarus’ 1918 dec­la­ra­tion of inde­pen­dence. This year, it is expect­ed to be marked with nation­wide protests. On 25 March activists around the world will hold protests out­side Belaru­sian embassies and share mes­sages of sol­i­dar­i­ty with peace­ful pro­test­ers. BAJ has called for sol­i­dar­i­ty with Belaru­sians on this day.

The co-sig­na­to­ries of the EFJ-BAJ let­ter express their “deep con­cern about the inten­si­fi­ca­tion of repres­sion in Belarus. (…) Today, there are over 250 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in the coun­try, includ­ing 12 jour­nal­ists. And this is just the tip of the ice­berg. Since the fraud­u­lent pres­i­den­tial elec­tions of 9 August 2020, more than 30,000 peo­ple (includ­ing 480 jour­nal­ists) have been detained, with many of them sub­ject­ed to tor­ture and ill-treat­ment, and over 1,000 peo­ple tar­get­ed by crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion.”

Read more on EFJ

The fol­low­ing jour­nal­ists are in jail at the moment:

Kat­siary­na  Bary­se­vich
Kat­siary­na Andreye­va
Daria Chultso­va
Yulia Slut­skaya
Alla Sharko
Siarhei Alsheus­ki
Petr Slut­s­ki
Kse­nia Lut­ski­na
Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau
Dzia­n­is Ivashyn
Yazep Palu­bi­at­ka
Siarhei Hardzievich, house arrest

Repres­sions against jour­nal­ists in Belarus, 2021 (chart)