RSF calls for EU pressure after wave of arrests of journalists in Belarus

Sev­er­al jour­nal­ists had already been arrest­ed since the start of the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cam­paign but this is the first time that the police have tar­get­ed reporters who had valid accred­i­ta­tion.

The vic­tims includ­ed reporter Ali­axan­dr Paz­ni­ak and cam­era­man Siarhei Bahrou, who were beat­en and hand­cuffed dur­ing their filmed arrest on 20 June in Hantsavichy, a town 180 km south of Min­sk, where they were cov­er­ing a demon­stra­tion for the local inde­pen­dent news­pa­per and web­site Hantsavichy Chas.

Yes­ter­day, Paz­ni­ak was fined 810 rou­bles (300 euros) for resist­ing the police and par­tic­i­pat­ing in an ille­gal demon­stra­tion, while Bahrou was sen­tenced to 15 days in prison. Siarzhuk Latsin­sky, a free­lancer based in the east­ern city of Babruysk, was sen­tenced to 10 days in prison for par­tic­i­pat­ing in an ille­gal demon­stra­tion.

More than 270 peo­ple, includ­ing at least 14 jour­nal­ists, were arrest­ed dur­ing ral­lies in Min­sk and oth­er cities on the evening of 19 June, the dead­line for would-be can­di­dates for the 9 August pres­i­den­tial elec­tion to col­lect the nec­es­sary sig­na­tures.

The police tar­get­ed both free­lancers and the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of inde­pen­dent and for­eign media includ­ing Reuters, Radio Svabo­da (RFE/RL’s Belaru­sian ser­vice), the Belaru­sian exile radio sta­tion Euro­ra­dio and the news sites Tut.by and Onliner.by. Mobile Inter­net was dis­con­nect­ed ahead of the ral­lies, obstruct­ing jour­nal­ists.

“In response to this unprece­dent­ed show of sup­port for oppo­si­tion can­di­dates, the author­i­ties are try­ing to gag the media and keep sup­press­ing all forms of plu­ral­ism, both polit­i­cal and jour­nal­is­tic,” said Jeanne Cave­li­er, the head of RSF’s East­ern Europe and Cen­tral Asia desk.

“Not­ing that, on the eve of these arrests, EU Com­mis­sion Pres­i­dent Ursu­la von der Leyen and Belaru­sian Prime Min­is­ter Roman Golovchenko par­tic­i­pat­ed in a sum­mit meet­ing between the EU and six East­ern Euro­pean part­ner coun­tries, we urge Von der Leyen and the EU com­mis­sion­er for neigh­bour­hood, Olivér Várhe­lyi, to con­di­tion any nego­ti­a­tion with Min­sk on an end to the harass­ment of jour­nal­ists and the release of all those still held.”

Ruled since 1994 by Pres­i­dent Alexan­der Lukashenko, who until now has been reelect­ed in the first round every five years, Belarus is ranked 153rd out of 180 coun­tries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Free­dom Index.