Police intensifies raids on exiled journalists’ residences in Belarus

In June and July, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists doc­u­ment­ed at least 21 search­es at the res­i­dences of jour­nal­ists who relo­cat­ed abroad and con­tin­ue to work in the media. In the major­i­ty of cas­es, law enforce­ment offi­cials arrived at the jour­nal­ists’ reg­is­tered places of res­i­dence with search war­rants for crim­i­nal cas­es against them.

Pho­to: BAJ

In sev­er­al cas­es, law enforce­ment offi­cials have record­ed videos of rel­a­tives of jour­nal­ists express­ing remorse. For exam­ple, recent­ly law enforce­ment offi­cers com­pelled the par­ents of the hosts of the Zerka­lo Tik­Tok page to record a video express­ing con­dem­na­tion and indig­na­tion against their chil­dren.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists views the recent surge in raids as a tac­tic to exert lever­age on jour­nal­ists and media out­lets. The author­i­ties are tar­get­ing not only the jour­nal­ists who were com­pelled to leave Belarus under duress, but also their fam­i­lies.

Cur­rent­ly, 37 media rep­re­sen­ta­tives are behind bars in Belarus.

BAJ urges jour­nal­ists to report any infor­ma­tion regard­ing instances of per­se­cu­tion to the orga­ni­za­tion. In cas­es where jour­nal­ists or edi­tors are reluc­tant to iden­ti­fy them­selves, the data can be kept anony­mous. This infor­ma­tion will assist in gaug­ing the over­all lev­el of repres­sion.