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The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) on Friday demanded the opening of a criminal investigation against those who detained at least 47 journalists on Thursday 27 August to prevent them from covering the protests against disputed President Lukashenko in Belarus. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) fully supports the legal proceedings initiated by its affiliate BAJ.

Belarusian journalists have long worked under extremely difficult conditions and have had to contend with limited access to information and the severe curtailment of freedom of speech. Volha Siakhovich looks at the latest media crackdown sparked by the recent presidential election and at how journalists have responded to the government’s actions.

On August 27, the police detained the journalists covering events on Freedom and Independence Square in Minsk. They were taken to Kastrychnitski police department for checking their ids. Altogether, about 50 journalists were detained. The police released most of them after checking their documents. However, four journalists refused to give their smartphones to police for a check-up. Therefore, the police drew up reports with charges of participation in an unauthorized mass action. Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Maksim Harchanok, Aliaksandr Vasiukovich, and Andrei Yarashevich were left in custody until trial. Swedish journalist Paul Hansen will be deported. Swedish ambassador to Belarus Christina Johannesson came to the Kastrychnitski police station where the journalists were kept. Paul Hansen is to leave Belarus tomorrow. He is banned from travelling to Belarus for 5 years. BelaPAN journalist Tatsiana Karavenkova was taken to hospital by an ambulance.

Nasha Niva journalist Natalia Lubneuskaya was injured by a rubber bullet on August 10.

Representatives of law-enforcement agencies brutally detained four independent journalists in Babruysk (Mahilou region) on August 10, 2020. Three of them were detained next to the local pretrial detention center, where the relatives of the previously locked up Babruysk dwellers gathered and waited for court decisions. The fourth journalist was taken into custody at his wife’s work place. 

On August 10, Yauhen Nikolayevich, a Media-Polesye reporter was detained while performing his professional duties. He was released on the night of August 16-17.

Alena Scharbinskaya, a correspondent with the independent satellite broadcaster Belsat TV, was among dozens of journalists detained last week in Belarus when protests erupted after the re-election of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, whose victory has been contested by many voters and the opposition. She was kept for three days in the now-infamous detention center known among locals as “Akrestsin,” the name of the Minsk street where it is located.   

On Friday, 14 August, during a meeting with the Ministry of Information BAJ handed over the lists of detained journalists and insisted on their release. Recently, the majority of the detained and arrested journalists were released. However, the sentences that had been pronounced to them were not canceled, and they might be sent back to jail to serve their jail terms any time.

Now the journalist is looking for cellmates who may also have suffered from the wardress who beat the girls.

Today at 6.37 a.m. Ivan had tears of joy in his eyes, walking into his apartment building 21 Bedy Street after his release from Akrestsina detention center.

In the evening of May 10, Alena Shcharbinskaya, I,  and another dozen people were loaded into a police van near Centralny police department, where we searched for information about our detained family members. Of course, the police did not explain, why they detained us.

14 August, the Belarusian regime denied an entrance to Belarus for two Members of European Parliament:Robert BiedrońMEP (Poland, S&D), chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Belarus and Petras Auštrevičius MEP (Lithuania, Renew), the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Belarus.