BAJ representative takes part in UN HRC’s 53rd session

In her speech, Vol­ha Khvoin remind­ed the audi­ence of impris­oned Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists and the cru­el­ty of the state sys­tem. In par­tic­u­lar, she men­tioned the recent sit­u­a­tion of video­g­ra­ph­er Viachaslau Laza­rau and his wife Tat­siana Pyt­sko: first, they arrest­ed Viachaslau and then Tat­siana, leav­ing their one-year-old daugh­ter in an orphan­age.

Viachaslau Laza­rau was charged with pro­mot­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties, while Tat­siana Pyt­sko is accused of cre­at­ing or par­tic­i­pat­ing in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion.

The BAJ rep­re­sen­ta­tive stressed that the com­mu­ni­ty now faces two fun­da­men­tal tasks: demand­ing the release of jour­nal­ists from deten­tion and the pro­tec­tion of the media sec­tor, pro­fes­sion­al staff, and edi­to­r­i­al offices.

At the ses­sion, Spe­cial Rap­por­teur Anais Marin pre­sent­ed her report on recent devel­op­ments, chal­lenges, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for free­dom of opin­ion and expres­sion and the dete­ri­o­rat­ing human rights sit­u­a­tion in Belarus.

The event was aimed at inform­ing the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty about the lat­est devel­op­ments regard­ing restric­tions on free­dom of opin­ion and expres­sion in Belarus.

The par­tic­i­pa­tion of a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists in the UN event made it pos­si­ble to remind the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty once again of the real sit­u­a­tion of jour­nal­ists, media work­ers, and civ­il soci­ety in Belarus. The event was orga­nized by the Per­ma­nent Mis­sions of Poland, Lithua­nia, Ger­many, and Japan to the UN.

The rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Atlantic Coun­cil, Anna Lubako­va, who was present at the event, not­ed that Lukashenka’s regime is try­ing to attack those in exile and those inside the coun­try and is mak­ing great efforts to atom­ize peo­ple. Ali­na Koushyk, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Unit­ed Tran­si­tion­al Cab­i­net, who was also present at the meet­ing, addressed the pro­pa­gan­da and aggres­sive pro­mo­tion of Russ­ian stan­dards. She stressed that a free Belarus and Ukraine are a guar­an­tee of Europe’s secu­ri­ty.

Repres­sion of jour­nal­ists and media in 2023, list of impris­oned jour­nal­ists