Accents

Nasha Niva journalist Katsiaryna Karpitskaya spent a month under arrest in a temporary detention center. During the time, she managed to catch several illnesses and witness the ongoing torture used against political detainees.

ARTICLE 19 is deeply concerned about the criminal charges pursued in Belarus against Belsat TV journalists Ekaterina Bakhvalova and Daria Chultsova. Both journalists were covering the peaceful protests taking place on 15 November 2020 that demanded a change of the ruling government and of the president, and accountability for the tortures and killings of protesters like Roman Bondarenka. Journalists are now facing criminal charges for organising actions that grossly violate public order, and active participation in them. ARTICLE 19 argues that journalists are simply prosecuted for carrying out their role – gathering and sharing important information about protests and ensuring accountability of public bodies for their actions. We call on the Belarusian courts to immediately and unconditionally drop these charges and refrain from bringing similar charges in the future.

In light of recent findings on Belarus by both the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, organisations express concern about ongoing abuses carried out by agents and supporters of the government of President Alexander Lukashenko and call for immediate investigations and redress.