CPJ: Police detain journalists covering protests in Belarus, charge 3

On June 19, police offi­cers detained at least 14 jour­nal­ists cov­er­ing protests in Min­sk, the cap­i­tal, and oth­er cities against the reelec­tion of Pres­i­dent Alek­san­dr Lukashenko, and today, local courts con­vict­ed three of them for alleged­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in unsanc­tioned protests, accord­ing to a repor­tEx­ter­nal link by the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, a local advo­ca­cy group, and medi­aEx­ter­nal link report­sEx­ter­nal link.

“Belaru­sian author­i­ties should stop deten­tions, arrests, and pros­e­cu­tions of jour­nal­ists cov­er­ing protests in the run-up to Belarus’ pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, and ensure their safe­ty,” said Gul­noza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Cen­tral Asia pro­gram coor­di­na­tor, in New York. “Jour­nal­ists should be allowed to freely report on impor­tant pub­lic events with­out fear of arrest or harass­ment.”   

Today, a court in Hance­vi­cy, near the west­ern city of Brest, con­vict­ed Ali­ak­san­dr Poz­ni­ak and Ser­hei Bagrov, cor­re­spon­dents for the inde­pen­dent news web­site Gantsav­it­s­ki Chas, on those charges, accord­ing to Barys Haret­s­ki, head of the Belaruss­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, who spoke to CPJ in a phone inter­view.

Poz­ni­ak was ordered to pay a fine of 804 Belaru­sian rubles ($340) and Bagrov was sen­tenced to 15 days in deten­tion, Haret­s­ki said. 

He also said that a court in Babruysk, in east­ern Belarus, con­vict­ed Ser­hey Latin­sky, a jour­nal­ist for human rights news out­let Vias­na, and sen­tenced him to 10 days in jail, also for alleged­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in the protests.

All three jour­nal­ists denied the charges, Haret­s­ki told CPJ. He also said the police beat Bagrov and Poz­ni­ak dur­ing their deten­tions, giv­ing both bruis­es on their faces and black eyes.

On June 19 in Min­sk, the cap­i­tal, police detained U.S. Con­gress-fund­ed broad­cast­er Radio Free Europe/Radio Lib­er­ty cor­re­spon­dent Ali­ak­san­dra Dynko and cam­era oper­a­tor Andrei Rabchyk, Reuters reporter Uladz­imir Kostsin, Onliner.by reporter Anas­ta­sia Zanko, Tut.by cor­re­spon­dent Vadz­im Zamirous­ki, and Pol­ish broad­cast­er Euro­ra­dio cor­re­spon­dents Maria Vaitovich and Art­siom May­orov, accord­ing to those news reports.

Police in the east­ern city of Mahil­iou detained Tut.by cor­re­spon­dent Anzha­li­ka Vasileuskaya and free­lancer Ales Sobaleu while they were cov­er­ing protests there, accord­ing to the association’s report and Haret­s­ki.

Police in Babruysk arrest­ed Ale­sia Latsin­skaya and Dzya­nis Nosau, reporters at the news web­site Bobyruisk.ru, accord­ing to a repor­tEx­ter­nal link by their employ­er. 

Author­i­ties briefly detained those jour­nal­ists but released them with­out charge, Haret­s­ki said.

CPJ called the local branch­es of the Min­istry of inte­ri­or in Min­sk and Brest, and emailed the office in Babruysk for com­ment, but did not receive any respons­es.