News

Viasna human rights center has designated May 21 as a Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners in Belarus. On this day two years ago, political prisoner Vitold Ashurak died in the Škloŭ penal colony No. 17. No criminal proceedings have been initiated following his death, while the situation with political prisoners has significantly deteriorated. Last year, the Day of Political Prisoners theme was the yellow tag used in colonies to mark inmates. It was Ashurak who first talked about it in his letter. This year human rights defenders propose to make the theme of the Day of Solidarity with political prisoners in Belarus letters and the right to correspondence, which the Belarusian authorities have deprived hundreds of political prisoners. Viasna calls on people to express solidarity with all political prisoners on May 21, draw the attention of the Belarusian and international community to their problems, and once again demand the release of all political prisoners from the authorities. The Belarusian Association of Journalists joins the events! The authorities are trying to destroy independent journalism in Belarus. Support the Solidarity Marathon!

The UN Human Rights Committee considered a complaint of four Belarusian journalists and found Belarus guilty of violating their right to seek and impart information, enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists became aware of another case of extrajudicial deprivation of the domain name of a non-state media outlet in the Belarusian segment of the Internet. This time the editorial board of EX-PRESS.BY came under attack, an Internet resource reporting on the events in Barysau and Zhodzina.

A number of independent publications have already been included in the list of "extremist organizations" based exclusively on a decision of the State Security Committee, and now the authorities have decided to deprive the editorial offices of their Belarusian domain names.