2018

Kiev, August 8, 2018–Belarusian authorities should immediately release detained journalists and stop harassing independent media outlets, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police raided the Minsk offices of at least three independent Belarusian news outlets and detained at least 17 journalists yesterday and today, accusing them of unlawfully obtaining information from a state news…

New York, July 31, 2018–Belarusian authorities should end their harassment of independent blogger Sergey Petrukhin and allow him to work without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A court today charged Petrukhin with disobedience of an official order, according to the independent Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Kiev, July 17, 2018–A Minsk court today found Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Halko guilty of assaulting a police officer, sentenced him to four years’ labor at a low-security prison colony, and ordered him to pay restitution of 850 Belarusian rubles (US$430) to the officer, according to Halko’s wife, Julia Garkusha, and media reports. Halko was released…

Kiev, July 6, 2018–Belarusian authorities should immediately release journalist Dzmitry Halko and drop all the charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Halko, also known as Dmitry Galko, is scheduled to be tried by a Minsk court on July 10 on charges of assaulting a police officer at his Minsk apartment last…

Kiev, June 8, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Belarusian parliament to reject proposed laws that could further censor the media in the country. The Prosecutor General’s Office is drafting a bill on “fake news,” and the lower house of parliament separately is considering amendments to the media law.

Four Belarussian police officers on February 18, 2018, attacked Andrus (Andrey) Kozel, a cameraperson for the independent TV station Belsat, while he was live streaming to Facebook from inside a polling station in central Minsk, media reported.

New York, February 1, 2018– The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Belarusian Ministry of Information to unblock access to the independent news website Charter 97. Natalya Radina, the site’s editor-in-chief, told CPJ today that access to the site has been blocked in Belarus since January 24, and that from today, the web…