Ranak TV channel staff members detained and fined

The human rights defend­ers not­ed that law enforce­ment offi­cers arrest­ed nine employ­ees of Ranak-Media and Ranak-Rekla­ma. Ear­li­er, Homel Vias­na report­ed eight deten­tions: Andrei Lip­s­ki, jour­nal­ist, Pavel Rabko, cam­era­man, Vadz­im Vezh­navets, edi­tor-in-chief of the media com­pa­ny, Uladz­imir Papou, cam­era­man, Mary­na Bychk­ouskaya, mar­ket­ing spe­cial­ist, Ale­na Kisialio­va, chief accoun­tant, Krystsi­na Kazialko­va, sec­re­tary, Han­na Zhurskaya, and Eliza­ve­ta Shavialen­ka.

Zhurskaya is preg­nant. She has been released pend­ing tri­al, human rights activists say. Shavialen­ka was also released before tri­al on the grounds of dis­abil­i­ty.

Human rights activists note that all the women were detained in dif­fer­ent places after work­ing hours. Homel Vias­na, cit­ing its sources, report­ed that the rea­son for the deten­tion was the cov­er­age by Ranak jour­nal­ists of the acci­dent at the Svet­la­horsk pulp and paper mill.

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