Belarusian journalist Palina Pitkevich is serving a three-year prison sentence following a March 7, 2025, conviction on charges of participating in an “extremist” group. She has been detained since June 6, 2024, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an advocacy and trade group operating from exile.
Pitkevich was arrested shortly after authorities designated the Press Club Belarus’ media literacy project Media IQ as an extremist group and listed her among its members, a BAJ representative told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
Belarus’ Criminal Code was amended to comply with a package of extremism legislation in 2021. Since then, the law to combat extremism has been used to ban more than 35 media outlets, according to BAJ.
CPJ’s July 7, 2025 email to the Belarusian Investigative Committee, the country’s law enforcement agency in charge of pretrial proceedings, about Pitkevich’s case did not receive a reply. Pitkevich was not included in CPJ’s 2024 count of imprisoned journalists because her detention was made public in February 2025.