BAJ hails prisoner releases, urges freedom for those still jailed

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists wel­comes the release of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers but stress­es that many jour­nal­ists and media work­ers remain unjust­ly impris­oned.

Mary­na Zolata­va in the first min­utes after being deport­ed from Belarus to Ukraine. Screen­shot

Today, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists wel­comes the release from prison of 123 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, includ­ing Mary­na Zolata­va, edi­tor-in-chief of TUT.BY, as well as BAJ mem­bers Ales Biali­ats­ki, Uladz­imir Labkovich, and Ali­ak­san­dr Fiadu­ta.

We call for the imme­di­ate and uncon­di­tion­al release of all jour­nal­ists — and of all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Belarus.

At present, 27 media work­ers remain in deten­tion.