Homiel: Two Belsat TV contributors detained
11 September 2020
Larysa Shchyrakova, a Homiel-based Belsat journalist, is currently in the police department.
In case of being placed in custody, she might go on a hunger strike, the reporter said on Facebook.
In early September, Shchyrakova was taken to the police station on charges of participating in unauthorised mass events. However, she was present at the protests as a journalist and performed her professional duties. Then the policemen warned Larysa (who is a single mother) that her minor son might be taken away and sent to an orphanage.
Moreover, cameraman Andrey Tolchyn was grabbed by plainclothes policemen on September, 11. He managed to send a short text (‘They have detained me”). According to human rights defender Mikalai Novikau, the officers said that Tolchyn would have to give explanation as part of some ‘criminal case’.
Since Friday afternoon, Belsat.eu has been getting reports about the policemen’s keeping watch over independent journalists’ residence places from different corners of the country.
@bajmedia
