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BAJ and Reporters without Borders, addressed the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression. The letter informs about numerous cases of criminal prosecution of journalists and media in Belarus since September 2020.

The regime has deprived TUT.BY, the largest news portal in Belarus, of its media status, and the Ministry of Information is assessing whether to block the access to the website. Members of Press Club Belarus team are in jail for already a month. How to resist repression? How does the journalistic community deal with pressure? What is the situation with the regional media? Spoiler alert: everything is pretty bad there too.

The Investigative Committee of Belarus works in collaboration with the National Committee to Protect Journalists of the Belarusian Union of Journalists, as well as the "Authorized Representative for the Protection of Journalists" of BUJ Alexander Shpakouski.

No one was detained. Investigative Committee officers seized equipment from the office. The search was done as part of the case journalist Andrei Aliaksandrau.

Andrei Aliaksandrau was detained in a criminal case, started by Minsk city department of the Investigative Committee,  said Aliaksandrau's lawyer. Andrei Alexandrov is a suspect under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus "Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them."

On January 12 Frunzenski district court of Minsk received the criminal case of Belsat journalists Katsiaryna Andreyeva (Bakhvalava) and Daria Chultsova.

Political prisoner, author of YouTube channel “Slutsk for Life,” Uladzimir Nyaronski is standing trial in Lahoisk. This is the first trial in the “Tsikhanouski case,” reports Spring96.org

The probe into Katsyaryna Andreyeva’s case might have been completed, her husband, investigative journalist Ihar Ilyash, surmised after reading the latest letter from the wife. As Andreyeva’s defence lawyers had to sign gag orders, they have no right to inform anyone (even her relatives) about the course and details of the investigation. However, in the letter Ilyash received on Ianuary 9, the imprisoned journalist wrote that she was awaiting the transfer to Minsk. “As it follows from the context of the letter, she talks about transporting her to court. It is quite logical: Katsyaryna was put in Zhodzina [remand prison] for the time of the investigation. As she has grounds to count on being transferred to Minsk, it means that the investigation has been over and one might expecte that she will be tried soon,” Ihar Ilyash said. However, it has not been reported officially whether and when the transfer and the trial will take place. “I don’t even make any projections for the future. I am ready for anything. It is pretty hard to surprise me now,” Katsyaryna Andreyeva says in her letter.

Political prisoner Ihar Losik remains behind bars so far: on January 11, a Minsk court dismissed a complaint filed by his defence lawyer and let the detainer stand, RFE/RL reports.

Founder of the Press Club Belarus Yulia Slutskaya has been charged under Part 2 of Article 243 - evasion of taxes or duties on an especially large scale.  Its director Siarhei Alsheuski is charged under Part 6 of Article 16 (complicity ) of a crime under part 2 of Article 243, BelaPAN reports refering to his attorney Anton Hashynski. 

The list includes incidents which the Belarusian Association of Journalists regards as violations of journalists' rights, committed by representatives of the authorities. 2021 — Repressions against journalists in Belarus, 2021 (chart)

At 10:30 a.m. police came to the office of Hantsavitski Chas newspaper with a search warrant.