More arrests of journalists in Belarus

Accord­ing to the mon­i­tor­ing car­ried out by BAJ, nine jour­nal­ists were detained by the police on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day:

• Larysa Shchyrako­va, detained on 30 August in Homel;

• Ivan Kaliganov (Tass), detained on 30 August in Min­sk;

• Jau­gen Mikala­je­vicz, detained on 30 August in Min­sk;

• Ales Sabalews­ki, detained on 30 August in Mahil­iow;

• Svy­ataslau Zorky (KP), detained on 29 August in Min­sk;

• Paulyuk Byk­ous­ki (Deutsche Welle), detained on 29 August in Min­sk;

• Zmitser Mick­iewicz, detained on 29 August in Min­sk;

• Andrei Rabchyk, detained on 29 August in Min­sk;

• Ales Pilet­sky, detained on 29 August in Min­sk.

• Kanstantsin Manenk­ou (AP), detained on 29 August in Min­sk and deport­ed;

• Dzmit­ry Lavet­s­ki (AP), detained on 29 August in Min­sk and deport­ed;

Since the fraud­u­lent elec­tions of 9 August, 139 jour­nal­ists have been sub­ject to admin­is­tra­tive arrests in Belarus. Most have been released, but they are being pros­e­cut­ed, often for alleged par­tic­i­pa­tion in an ille­gal demon­stra­tion.

“The EFJ con­demns this judi­cial repres­sion of jour­nal­ists for just doing their job,” said EFJ Direc­tor Renate Schroed­er. “We demand the release of all detained jour­nal­ists and the lift­ing of all pros­e­cu­tions. We reit­er­ate our urgent call to the Euro­pean Union and the OSCE to pun­ish the Belaru­sian author­i­ties for these unac­cept­able obstruc­tions which aim to put up a wall of silence on the repres­sion of Belaru­sian democ­rats.”