OSCE media Representative concerned by detention of journalists in Belarus, calls on authorities to ensure right of media to cover public gatherings

“The jour­nal­ists play a cru­cial role in cov­er­ing events of pub­lic inter­est, par­tic­u­lar­ly those relat­ed to elec­tions. Obstruc­tion of media activ­i­ties neg­a­tive­ly affects media free­dom and the free flow of infor­ma­tion, and is a mat­ter of great con­cern,” Désir said. “I call on the author­i­ties to ensure that jour­nal­ists are able to do their work, to cov­er and report on pub­lic gath­er­ings with­out fear of being detained.”

Accord­ing to reports, on 19 June, law enforce­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives detained at least ten media work­ers, includ­ing from Radio Svabo­da (part of RFE/RL), Reuters, Euroradio.fm, Tut.by, Onliner.by, Bel­sat TV and Bobr.by, in the cap­i­tal Min­sk and the cities of Gomel and Bobruisk. The jour­nal­ists were detained while cov­er­ing pub­lic gath­er­ings on the last day of col­lect­ing sig­na­tures in sup­port of the nom­i­na­tion of pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates. Report­ed­ly, the detained media work­ers were lat­er released.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, Désir expressed con­cern regard­ing the deten­tion and impris­on­ment of jour­nal­ists and free­lance reporters..