Accents

"There is nothing impossible for her" — a story about the founder of the Press Club, Yulia Slutskaya. Four months after the Belarusian presidential elections, the founder of Press Club Belarus, Yulia Slutskaya, and three members of her team —  Financial Director Sergei Olshevsky, Programme Director Alla Sharko and Yulia's son Photographer Pyotr Slutsky — were arrested on charges of tax evasion and have been remanded in prison in Minsk since December 22, 2020.

The President of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Andrei Bastunets and his Vice-presidents Aleh Aheyeu and Barys Haretski described how they were searched and what the organization is doing now. Early in the morning of 16 February, security forces raided the homes of heads of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ)- a registered non-governmental public organization that protects the rights of the journalists. The association’s office was also searched. Later it is revealed that other raids were conducted against human rights defenders, journalists and activists almost throughout the country. The Investigation Committee reported that the procedure was initiated “to establish the circumstances of funding for the protest activities”. Today BAJ works under extremely difficult conditions: the office was sealed, the bank account was arrested, equipment, financial documents and a seal were seized. The material was prepared within the framework of the Press Club Belarus project "Press under the press", which contains evidence of repressions against independent media and journalists in Belarus.

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.

After nearly 450 press freedom violations registered in Belarus in the past four months, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is recommending 15 ways to end what is an unprecedented crackdown on the media in a European country.

The wife of political prisoner Ihar Losik told the media about the conditions of her husband's incarceration in Zhodzina jail. Daria Losik is sure that the jail administration is deliberately creating unbearable conditions for Ihar in the hope to break him and make him incriminate himself and other people. RFE/RL published a video with Daria's story in its Telegram channel.

A cameraman Uladzimir Luniou was filming peaceful protest actions in Minsk. On August 10, he was besieged by police near the ‘Pushkinskaya’ metro station. He was detained at about 11.30 pm, despite wearing a vest with the word “Press” and trying to explain that he was an independent journalist. According to the reporter, he was kept 'in inhumane conditions' in custody for 34 hours.  He was released later, but his personal belongings were not returned to him. Moreover, he had to visit the detention center again, in order to get his passport back. The court ruling of August 21 has not been sent to him yet.