“We are shocked”: British and German embassies condemn new wave of journalist arrests in Belarus

The num­ber of known cas­es of deten­tion of media work­ers in Belarus has risen sharply to 45 peo­ple. Just last week, it was announced that jour­nal­ists from two more region­al pub­li­ca­tions had been detained.

Pho­to: BAJ

“We are shocked by the arrest of 7 jour­nal­ists this month, which is anoth­er trag­ic exam­ple of the sup­pres­sion of free­dom of expres­sion in Belarus. There are cur­rent­ly 45 media pro­fes­sion­als behind bars. As a mem­ber of the @MediaFreedomCoalition, we are close­ly mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion and call for the release of the unjust­ly impris­oned jour­nal­ists,” says the Ger­man Embassy in Min­sk state­ment issued ear­li­er today.

The British Embassy in Belarus post­ed a sim­i­lar state­ment, call­ing for “the release of the unjust­ly detained jour­nal­ists.”

The Board of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists made a state­ment in Decem­ber call­ing on the Belaru­sian author­i­ties to “stop witch-hunts and the use of extrem­ist leg­is­la­tion to sti­fle dis­sent” and to release polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and all polit­i­cal detainees.

A recent study by Reporters With­out Bor­ders revealed that Belarus is cur­rent­ly ranked fourth in the world for the num­ber of jour­nal­ists impris­oned. In this unfa­vor­able list, Belarus is sec­ond only to three coun­tries: Chi­na (124 media work­ers, includ­ing 11 in Hong Kong), Myan­mar (61), and Israel (41). Fol­low­ing the recent surge in arrests, Belarus could poten­tial­ly be in third place, with 45 media work­ers cur­rent­ly impris­oned.

The sit­u­a­tion of free­dom of expres­sion and inde­pen­dent media in Belarus remains one of the most chal­leng­ing in the world. Accord­ing to the 2024 Press Free­dom Index, Belarus is ranked 167 out of 180, a fur­ther decline of 10 places com­pared to the pre­vi­ous rat­ing.