Attacks on media workers in Belarus in 2023–2024

Author­i­ties con­tin­ued to active­ly use counter-extrem­ism leg­is­la­tion to sup­press free­dom of expres­sion. By the end of 2024, 35 media out­lets were regard­ed as extrem­ist groups. In turn, 33 media work­ers were added to the state’s list of extrem­ists, and 12 to the list of ter­ror­ists.

It is worth not­ing that not all inci­dents were record­ed dur­ing the mon­i­tor­ing. In some cas­es, jour­nal­ists them­selves or their rel­a­tives are intim­i­dat­ed by law enforce­ment agen­cies and fear pub­lic dis­clo­sure of the fact that pres­sure is being put on them. In oth­er cas­es, in the con­text of increased repres­sion, many media work­ers con­sid­er cer­tain types of vio­la­tions of their rights (e.g., restric­tions on access to infor­ma­tion) to be insignif­i­cant and do not report them. On Decem­ber 6, 2024, the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists pub­lished a study, “The Sit­u­a­tion and Needs of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Belaru­sian Media Sec­tor”, con­duct­ed among 211 jour­nal­ists. When asked about the main prob­lems relat­ed to their pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties, 67% said that they or their rel­a­tives were like­ly to be per­se­cut­ed; 62% men­tioned low salaries and lack of funds in their media; 40% com­plained about over­load; 34% point­ed to the lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion with col­leagues; 32% spoke about the lack of suit­able work; 27% men­tioned cen­sor­ship and self-cen­sor­ship; 24% talked about the lack of suit­able premis­es for work; 20% said they had out­dat­ed equip­ment and need­ed to replace it; and 14% expressed regret about the lack of a jour­nal­is­tic com­mu­ni­ty in the region.

4/ PHYSICAL ATTACKS AND THREATS TO LIFE, LIBERTY AND HEALTH

The decrease in the num­ber of phys­i­cal attacks on jour­nal­ists in 2023–2024 is not due to an improve­ment in the sit­u­a­tion with the safe­ty of jour­nal­ists, but, on the con­trary, to a dete­ri­o­ra­tion in their work­ing con­di­tions due to force­ful pres­sure. This has led to the forced depar­ture abroad of many media work­ers or the aban­don­ment of jour­nal­ism due to threats to their safe­ty. In all record­ed cas­es of phys­i­cal vio­lence, the aggres­sors were rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the author­i­ties.

• On April 22, 2023, it became known that the par­ents and wife of polit­i­cal pris­on­er Denis Ivashyn, were receiv­ing threats. Ivashyn has been sen­tenced to 13 years In prison. His fam­i­ly have been told to stop mak­ing pub­lic state­ments about his case and health. They have been threat­ened that if they do not, prison author­i­ties will stop Ivashyn from receiv­ing any infor­ma­tion or engag­ing in any com­mu­ni­ca­tion. This means that he would not be able to make or receive phone calls, write or receive let­ters, or have vis­i­tors (he has already been pun­ished by being deprived of one long-term vis­it and one short-term one). Alleged­ly, if his rel­a­tives do not stop their pub­lic activ­i­ties even his lawyer would not be able to see him. Denis’s wife Olga Ivashina told reporters about this.

In 2023–2024, a small num­ber of cas­es of ille­gal obstruc­tion of the pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties of jour­nal­ists were record­ed. This, again, is due to a decrease in the num­ber of inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists remain­ing in the coun­try with a legal sta­tus. (Many had lost their sta­tus due to their media out­lets (both local and for­eign) loos­ing license and jour­nal­ists’ accred­i­ta­tions with­drawn). In addi­tion, jour­nal­ists remain­ing in the coun­try do not per­ceive these types of attacks as sig­nif­i­cant (com­pared to crim­i­nal cas­es and arrests) and often do not report such inci­dents.

• On Feb­ru­ary 17, 2023, Ana­tol Gotov­chits, a jour­nal­ist of the inde­pen­dent out­let Nar­o­d­naya Volya, was not allowed into the court­room of the Gomel Region­al Court for the announce­ment of the ver­dict to the mem­bers of the “Labor Move­ment”. Accord­ing to the jour­nal­ist, Ali­na Sulei­ka, pub­lic rela­tions and media offi­cial advi­sor, stopped him at the entrance and demand­ed to wait until the par­tic­i­pants in the tri­al entered the court­room, but after they did she has announced that the tri­al had already begun, and the secu­ri­ty closed the door.

Also in 2023–2024, two cyber­at­tacks and one inci­dent involv­ing wire­tap­ping of a journalist’s phone were record­ed.

• Anoth­er pow­er­ful DDoS attack occurred on the web­site of the Belaru­sian sports por­tal Tri­buna (by.tribuna.com) on March 14, 2024, as a result of which it was unavail­able to users for sev­er­al hours.
• On June 30, 2023, video­g­ra­ph­er Pavel Podobed was sen­tenced to four years in prison to be served in a gen­er­al regime colony. The judge of the Min­sk City Court, Evgeniy Pis­are­vich, found the jour­nal­ist guilty under Part 3 of Art. 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (“Join­ing an extrem­ist group for the pur­pose of com­mit­ting an extrem­ist crime”). Dur­ing the court hear­ing, it turned out that Podobed’s phone had been tapped and secu­ri­ty forces had had access to his cor­re­spon­dence and mes­sages.

6/ ATTACKS VIA JUDICIAL AND/OR ECONOMIC MEANS

As pre­vi­ous­ly, the main aggres­sors against the media, jour­nal­ists and blog­gers in 2023–2024 were gov­ern­ment offi­cials. Most of the attacks were car­ried out via judi­cial and/or eco­nom­ic means.

Since 2020, crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion has remained the main method of pres­sure. A par­tic­u­lar­ly sharp increase in crim­i­nal cas­es is asso­ci­at­ed with the pros­e­cu­tions in line with broad­ly inter­pret­ed arti­cles on “extrem­ism”, “incite­ment to hatred”, “high trea­son”, “calls for the over­throw of the con­sti­tu­tion­al order” and “reha­bil­i­ta­tion of Nazism”.

The prac­tice of crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion of jour­nal­ists both with­in the coun­try and those who have man­aged to go abroad has con­tin­ued. Tri­als in absen­tia against media work­ers in exile have become reg­u­lar:

• On Jan­u­ary 18, 2023, the Min­sk City Court announced the ver­dict in the tri­al in absen­tia as part of the “spe­cial pro­ceed­ings” in the “Black Book of Belarus” case. The court sen­tenced in absen­tia for­mer jour­nal­ist of the Press­ball news­pa­per and co-founder of Tribuna.com, Dmit­ry Navosha, as well as four oth­er defen­dants in the case, to 12 years in a penal colony. They were accused of ille­gal­ly col­lect­ing per­son­al data (Part 3 of Arti­cle 203–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code) and incit­ing hatred (Part 3 of Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code). The tri­al took place behind closed doors. Accord­ing to the indict­ment, the telegram chan­nel “Black Book of Belarus” pub­lished per­son­al data of mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces, offi­cials and pro-gov­ern­ment jour­nal­ists involved in harass­ment, attacks, beat­ings and the tor­ture of pro­test­ers. In addi­tion to the prison sen­tence, the jour­nal­ists must also pay fines of $7,600 and com­pen­sa­tion to the vic­tims of their pub­li­ca­tions. In line with this, the court also ordered the seizure of Dmit­ry Navosha’s apart­ment.
• The founder of Malan­ka Media, Pavel Maryn­ich,  was sen­tenced in absen­tia on March 18, 2024, to four years in prison. He was found guilty of “obstruct­ing the work of the Cen­tral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion” (Part 2 of Arti­cle 191 of the Crim­i­nal Code). The court con­sid­ered the case in a spe­cial pro­ceed­ing – in the absence of the defen­dants, who are cur­rent­ly out­side the coun­try. The same sen­tence was passed against the founder of the dig­i­tal plat­form “New Belarus”, Pavel Liber, politi­cian Alexan­der Dobro­vol­sky and head of the pub­lic ini­tia­tive “Hon­est Peo­ple”, Ele­na Zhivoglod.
• On June 25, 2024, blog­gers Andrei and Olga Pauk were deemed to be the lead­ers of an “extrem­ist group” for their project “Rud­abel­skaya win­dow dress­ing”. Based on sev­er­al crimes charged against him Andrei Pauk was sen­tenced in absen­tia to 12 years in prison, to be served in a high-secu­ri­ty penal colony. He was also giv­en a large fine of 200,000 BYN ($62,163). Olga Pauk was sen­tenced in absen­tia to eight years in prison, with the term to be served in a gen­er­al regime penal colony, and fined BYN 100,000 ($31,081.96).
• Two jour­nal­ists from Belaru­sian inde­pen­dent media, Yuri Drakakhrust and Anna Lyubako­va, were sen­tenced in absen­tia to ten years in prison and a large fine on July 2, 2024. The ver­dict was passed by the Min­sk Region­al Court, which con­sid­ered the case in a spe­cial pro­ceed­ing. Drakakhrust and Lyubako­va were charged under a num­ber of crim­i­nal arti­cles, includ­ing involve­ment in an extrem­ist group; con­spir­a­cy to seize pow­er; incit­ing social hos­til­i­ty and hatred; and facil­i­tat­ing pub­lic calls for action aimed at harm­ing nation­al secu­ri­ty. The jour­nal­ists’ prop­er­ty in Belarus was seized “in order to ensure com­pen­sa­tion for the dam­age caused”.
• On August 2, 2024, jour­nal­ist Ales Kirke­vich was sen­tenced in absen­tia. He was found guilty of facil­i­tat­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties under Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code and sen­tenced to sev­en years in prison and fined  $234.15.
•  Jour­nal­ist Vladimir Khilmanovich was sen­tenced in absen­tia to five years in prison on August 19, 2024, to be served in a high secu­ri­ty penal colony.  He was also fined BYN 40,000 ($12,798.77). The case was con­sid­ered by the Grod­no Region­al Court in spe­cial pro­ceed­ings. Judge Igor Sobolev found Khilmanovich guilty of assist­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties (Parts 1 and 2 of Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code of the Repub­lic of Belarus) and of par­tic­i­pat­ing in the activ­i­ties of an extrem­ist group  (Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code of the Repub­lic of Belarus). Accord­ing to the ver­dict, Khilmanovich’s prop­er­ty was seized, includ­ing his apart­ment in Grod­no and house­hold appli­ances, and is to be sold in order to cov­er the mon­e­tary penal­ties imposed by the court. The amount of €100.12, seized by the inves­ti­ga­tors dur­ing the search, will also be put towards this. The term of the sen­tence will be cal­cu­lat­ed from the day of his actu­al deten­tion. At the moment Khilmanovich is liv­ing abroad.

Counter-extrem­ism leg­is­la­tion also con­tin­ued to be used as an excuse to restrict access to inde­pen­dent sources of infor­ma­tion. In 2023–2024, numer­ous Inter­net sources and pub­li­ca­tions were regard­ed as con­tain­ing extrem­ist con­tent, while var­i­ous media projects were labelled as “extrem­ist group activ­i­ties”. Media out­lets and media orga­ni­za­tions regard­ed by the author­i­ties as “extrem­ist groups/organizations” are: Bel­sat, Bela­PAN, Euraradyye, TUT.BY, Kyky.org, “Nasha Niva”, “Radio Svabo­da”, “Charter’97”, “Flagstaff”, Hrodna.life, Volkovysk.by, “Malan­ka Medyya”, “Bobruisk Online”, “Brest­skaya Gaze­ta”, Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, “MOST”, “Zerka­lo”, “Ranak”, Belaru­sian Research Cen­ter, “Tribuna.com Belarus”, Ex-press.livе, 6TV Bielarus, “Mag­ilyau. Media”, “Naviny Mag­i­lyųsk­a­ga regiy­onu”, “Belaruskae Radio Rat­sya”, “Shtodzen”, Znadniemna.pl, “DW Belarus”, project “Cha­go bre­shash?”, “This is Min­sk, baby”, “UDF – news of Belarus”, Media IQ, Orsha.eu, s13.ru, “Zerka­lo” and “Pozirk”.

Inter­ro­ga­tions, search­es, and deten­tions were car­ried out in Belarus for any form of coop­er­a­tion with “extrem­ist” inde­pen­dent media. At the same time, many search­es and deten­tions which take place in the jour­nal­ists’ apart­ments and on the premis­es of media orga­ni­za­tions are accom­pa­nied by phys­i­cal vio­lence, as well as ground­less and demon­stra­tive dam­age to prop­er­ty.

• Mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces detained employ­ees of the region­al state radio sta­tion “Gomel Plus” at their work­places on May 5, 2023. They are the edi­tor, Sergei Kras­noborod, sound engi­neer Artem Vasilkov, and radio pre­sen­ters, Anas­ta­sia Grit­senko and Zhan­na Min­i­na. The next day, the Cen­tral Dis­trict Court of Gomel found them guilty of an offense under Part 2 of Arti­cle 19.11 of the Code of Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es (dis­tri­b­u­tion of extrem­ist mate­ri­als), fol­low­ing charges against them of sub­scrib­ing to the “extrem­ist” Telegram chan­nel. The court sen­tenced Sergei Kras­noborod and Anas­ta­sia Grit­senko to 15 days’ jail.
• On July 10, 2024, the police detained Svet­lana Bogush, edi­tor-in-chief of the fac­to­ry news­pa­per “Mozyr Oil Refin­ery”. On the next day, a judge of the Mozyr dis­trict Svet­lana Buinavets found Bogush guilty of dis­trib­ut­ing con­tent includ­ed in the state’s list of extrem­ist mate­ri­als (Part 2 of Arti­cle 19.11 of the Code of Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es of the Repub­lic of Belarus). It is not known what sen­tence was imposed by the judge.
• On July 12, 2023, the Telegram chan­nel “Kni­ga GU Baza” linked to the secu­ri­ty forces pub­lished a video show­ing law enforce­ment offi­cers smash­ing up the emp­ty apart­ment of jour­nal­ist Denis Dudin­sky. The secu­ri­ty forces dam­aged fur­ni­ture, scat­tered belong­ings and stuffed the Belaru­sian nation­al flag (white-red-white) and the flag of Ukraine into the toi­let. On June 2, 2021, secu­ri­ty forces had searched the actu­al home of Denis Dudin­sky and his wife Kat­siary­na Raet­skaya. On June 10 that year, the cou­ple left Belarus.
• The secu­ri­ty forces broke into the apart­ment of a jour­nal­ist of the “Mogilev. Media” out­let, Alex­ey Batyukov, on Decem­ber 5, 2023. Batyukov was forced to the floor, his hands were twist­ed behind his head and some­one stepped on his back. Dur­ing the search, his lap­top, two smart­phones and flash cards were seized. After the search, the jour­nal­ist was first tak­en to the Mogilev Region­al Depart­ment of the KGB for inter­ro­ga­tion and then to the Lenin­s­ki Dis­trict Depart­ment of Inter­nal Affairs, where the police drew up a report against him under Arti­cle 19.11 of the Code of Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es – for repost­ing on Face­book mate­r­i­al from the Inter­net regard­ed as “extrem­ist”. Batyukov claims that he delet­ed the link in ques­tion from his phone, but KGB offi­cers were able to restore it. The night before the tri­al, Batyukov was held in the police depart­ment.
• Also on Decem­ber 5, 2023, after the region­al inde­pen­dent media “Mogilev.media” and “6TV.bu” were labelled as “extrem­ist bod­ies”, the secu­ri­ty forces con­duct­ed mas­sive search­es of the apart­ments of for­mer jour­nal­ists and civ­il activists. It is known that on Decem­ber 5 and 6, the fol­low­ing were searched: Igor Sharukha, Boris Vyr­vich, Alex­ei Biryukov, Sergey Antonov, Pyotr Migursky and Alexan­der Ageev. Com­put­er equip­ment, phones, hard dri­ves and paper pub­li­ca­tions were con­fis­cat­ed from every­one. After the search­es, all jour­nal­ists were tak­en for inter­ro­ga­tion by the KGB and after that released.
• On Decem­ber 6, 2023, police offi­cers searched the emp­ty apart­ment of jour­nal­ist Dmit­ry Lupach. Accord­ing to eye­wit­ness­es,  the secu­ri­ty forces, with the help of staff from the Min­istry of Emer­gency Sit­u­a­tions, broke down the door in order to enter the premis­es. After the search, the police sealed the door to the apart­ment. The jour­nal­ist him­self does not live in Belarus fol­low­ing a crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion.
• Offi­cers of the police unit of the Main Direc­torate for Com­bat­ing Orga­nized Crime and Cor­rup­tion broke down the door of the apart­ment of video­g­ra­ph­er, Yevge­ny Glushkov, on Jan­u­ary 5, 2024 and con­duct­ed a search. After this, Glushkov was detained and placed in a tem­po­rary deten­tion cen­tre. Accord­ing to eye­wit­ness­es, the secu­ri­ty forces took the jour­nal­ist out of his house with­out a coat and in hand­cuffs, with his hands twist­ed behind his back. He was tak­en into cus­tody under Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation or par­tic­i­pa­tion in an extrem­ist group). The court sen­tenced Glushkov to three years in a gen­er­al regime colony , and Imposed a fine of 8,000 BYN ($2,551.9).
• On April 30, 2024, it became known that the police searched the apart­ment of the par­ents of the edi­tor of the “Viteb­sk Couri­er News” web­site, Ali­ak­sander Korny­shev. The jour­nal­ist him­self lives in Poland after being forced into emi­gra­tion in 2020. The search was car­ried out as part of a crim­i­nal case for pro­mot­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties (Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code of the Repub­lic of Belarus). The rea­son behind Kornyshev’s per­se­cu­tion was his par­tic­i­pa­tion in a pro­gramme of the Bel­sat TV chan­nel, regard­ed by the Belaru­sian regime as an “extrem­ist body”.
• On May 16, 2024, the secu­ri­ty forces broke down the door to the emp­ty apart­ment of jour­nal­ist Dmit­ry Kaza­ke­vich and con­duct­ed a search. Min­istry of Emer­gency Sit­u­a­tions staff were involved in the break-in, cut­ting the met­al door with a grinder. Cur­rent­ly, no one lives in the apart­ment, since in 2021 Dmit­ry and his fam­i­ly were forced to leave Belarus because of per­se­cu­tion for his pro­fes­sion­al activ­i­ties. After the search, the apart­ment was seized. A few days lat­er, on May 20, it was announced on the ONT state tele­vi­sion chan­nel that a crim­i­nal case had been opened against Kaza­ke­vich for par­tic­i­pat­ing in the cel­e­bra­tion of Free­dom Day abroad. Kaza­ke­vich insists that he attend­ed the street march in War­saw not as a par­tic­i­pant but as a media work­er cov­er­ing the event.

Dur­ing the mon­i­tor­ing peri­od, at least 30 inci­dents relat­ed to the closure/blocking of media out­lets were record­ed. Below are some exam­ples: 

• The Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion can­celled the state reg­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate of the inde­pen­dent nation­al news­pa­per, Nar­o­d­na­ja Volya, on June 16, 2023. Accord­ing to the Min­istry, this was, “Due to the fact that the pub­lish­ing of this print media has not been car­ried out for six months in a row”. Nar­o­d­na­ja  Volya’s prob­lems began in August 2020. After the news­pa­per pub­lished arti­cles about the post-elec­tion protests on its front pages, equip­ment such as a print­ing press where the news­pa­per was print­ed, began to break down con­stant­ly. Then the print­ing house ter­mi­nat­ed the con­tract with the news­pa­per and print­ing was moved to Rus­sia. In Novem­ber 2020, Nar­o­d­na­ja Volya stopped pro­duc­ing the paper ver­sion. The print­ing house in Moscow ter­mi­nat­ed the con­tract with the news­pa­per after Rospotreb­nad­zor car­ried out an inspec­tion and sus­pend­ed its work. In addi­tion, the Belaru­sian state depart­ment of postal ser­vices “Belpochta” stopped dis­trib­ut­ing the news­pa­per and did not include it in the sub­scrip­tion cat­a­logue for 2021.
• On June 28, 2023, by order of the pros­e­cu­tor of the Viteb­sk region, Igor Ukranets, access to a num­ber of Ukrain­ian news sites was restrict­ed in Belarus: glavred.info, spektr.press, hromadske.ua, news.online.ua, and tribun.com.ua. “These por­tals post­ed infor­ma­tion of an extrem­ist nature, encour­ag­ing cit­i­zens to oppose the state author­i­ties of the Repub­lic of Belarus in con­nec­tion with the sit­u­a­tion regard­ing the Wag­n­er PMC. At the same time, the glavred.info, hromadske.ua, news.online.ua also report­ed false infor­ma­tion dis­cred­it­ing the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus”, the press release of the Pros­e­cu­tor General’s Office stat­ed.
• , At the request of the pros­e­cu­tor of the Per­vo­mais­ki dis­trict of Min­sk, the city’s Eco­nom­ic Court liq­ui­dat­ed ZAO Bela­PAN, the founder com­pa­ny of the inde­pen­dent news agency, Bela­PAN, on March 11, 2024. The media out­let ceased work in Belarus in Novem­ber 2021, when the KGB labelled it as an “extrem­ist body”. The prosecutor’s office stat­ed that it had alleged­ly iden­ti­fied “repeat­ed and gross vio­la­tions of tax leg­is­la­tion, as well as leg­is­la­tion on state social insur­ance”. The author­i­ties closed Bela­PAN on August 18, 2021. Then the secu­ri­ty forces detained the media exec­u­tives. The office and apart­ments of the employ­ees were searched and equip­ment was con­fis­cat­ed.
• On April 15, 2024, the Oper­a­tional and Ana­lyt­i­cal Cen­tre under the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus deprived the inde­pen­dent online out­let Media-Polesye (Media-Polesye.by) of a domain in the Belaru­sian seg­ment of the Inter­net (.by zone). The notice of can­cel­la­tion of the domain name was sent to the edi­to­r­i­al office of the media out­let, signed by the deputy head of the OAC, Sergei Zher­nosek. The Media-Polesye web­site was added to the state’s list of extrem­ist mate­ri­als com­piled by the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion of Belarus on the basis of court deci­sions in April 2022.
• On June 21, 2024, the Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion restrict­ed access in Belarus to the city news web­site baranovichi24.by. Accord­ing to a Medi­a­zona source famil­iar with the sit­u­a­tion, the rea­son the site was blocked was an arti­cle from Euro­ra­dio which was repost­ed on the web­site. In Belarus, Euro­ra­dio is regard­ed as an “extrem­ist group” and its con­tent as “extrem­ist mate­ri­als”.

ANNEX 1: OPEN SOURCES USED FOR GATHERING DATA (BELARUS)

• Arti­cle 19 – an inter­na­tion­al human rights organ­i­sa­tion that works to defend and pro­mote free­dom of expres­sion and free­dom of infor­ma­tion world­wide.
• Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists – the largest demo­c­ra­t­ic non-gov­ern­men­tal asso­ci­a­tion of Belaru­sian media rep­re­sen­ta­tives, a mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al and Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists.
• Min­istry of Infor­ma­tion of the Repub­lic of Belarus –a nation­al gov­ern­ment agency in the field of mass media that has seri­ous admin­is­tra­tive and sanc­tion pow­ers (from reg­is­ter­ing mass media to ini­ti­at­ing their clo­sure, as well as extra­ju­di­cial block­ing of Inter­net resources).
• Bel­sat – a Pol­ish free-to-air satel­lite tele­vi­sion chan­nel aimed at Belarus.
• Belta – a state news agency cre­at­ed to dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion about the activ­i­ties of the state bod­ies of Belarus.
• Pozirk – a Belaru­sian news agency launched by jour­nal­ists who had worked for Bela­PAN and Naviny.by.
• Reporters With­out Bor­ders – an inter­na­tion­al non-prof­it and non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion that safe­guards the right to free­dom of infor­ma­tion.
• Zerka­lo – a Belaru­sian infor­ma­tion por­tal.
• Vias­na Human Rights Cen­tre – a non-gov­ern­men­tal human rights orga­ni­za­tion, cre­at­ed in 1996 dur­ing mass protest actions of the demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­si­tion in Belarus. 
• Belaru­sian and Eng­lish-lan­guage resources that are avail­able online.

ANNEX 2: MEDIA WORKERS IN PRISON IN BELARUS

1. Kat­siary­na Andree­va (Bakhvala­va) – Belsat/ eight years and three months in prison/ under Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code of the Repub­lic of Belarus (Orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order, or active par­tic­i­pa­tion in them) and Arti­cle 356 of the Crim­i­nal Code of the Repub­lic of Belarus (Trea­son against the state).
2. Ihar Losik — Radio Svabo­da, Belarus of the Brain Telegram chan­nel / 15 years in prison under Part 1 of Arti­cle 293 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Orga­ni­za­tion of mass riots) and Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (incite­ment of hatred or dis­cord).
3. Andrei Ali­ak­san­drau – BelaPAN/ 14 years in prison / Part 2 of Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Orga­ni­za­tion of group actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order and prepa­ra­tion or train­ing of such activ­i­ties); Part 1 of Arti­cle 356 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Trea­son against the state); Part 1 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in one); Part 2 of Arti­cle 243 (Eva­sion of tax­es and fees).
4. Dzia­n­is Ivashyn, “Novy Chas”, InformNapalm/ 13 years and one month in prison / Arti­cle 356 of the Crim­i­nal Code (trea­son against the state) and Arti­cle 179 of the Crim­i­nal Code (ille­gal col­lec­tion and dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion about pri­vate life).
5. Andrej Pachobut (Andrzej Poc­zobut) – Gaze­ta Wybor­cza / eight years in prison / Arti­cle 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Calls for actions aimed at caus­ing harm to the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Incite­ment of hatred or dis­cord).
6. Mary­na Zolata­va – TUT.BY/ 12 years in prison / Arti­cle 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Calls for actions aimed at caus­ing harm to the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Incite­ment of hatred or dis­cord).
7. Liud­mi­la Chek­ina – TUT.BY/ 12 years in prison / Arti­cle 243 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Eva­sion of tax­es, fees).
8. Valer­i­ja Kast­si­u­go­va – “Our Opin­ion” / ten years in prison / Arti­cle 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Calls for actions aimed at caus­ing harm to the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Incite­ment of hos­til­i­ty or dis­cord), Arti­cle 357 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Con­spir­a­cy to seize pow­er by uncon­sti­tu­tion­al means).
9. Dzmit­ryi Navazhy­lau – Bela­PAN / six years in prison / Arti­cle 243 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Eva­sion of tax­es, fees), Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it).
10. Iry­na Slau­nika­va – Belsat/ five years in prison / Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order, or active par­tic­i­pa­tion in them), Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it).
11. Andrei Kuznechyk – Radio Svabo­da / six years in prison / Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it).
12. Siarhei Sat­suk – “Dai­ly” / eight years in prison / Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Incite­ment of enmi­ty or dis­cord), Arti­cle 430 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Bribery), Arti­cle 426 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Abuse of pow­er or offi­cial author­i­ty).
13. Kanstantsin Zalatykh – “Euro­pean Radio for Belarus” / four years in prison / Arti­cle 369 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Insult­ing a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the author­i­ties), Arti­cle 368 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Insult­ing the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Incite­ment to enmi­ty or dis­cord), Arti­cle 426 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Abuse of pow­er or offi­cial author­i­ty).
14. Ales (Ali­ak­san­dr) Liu­bianchuk – Belsat/ three years in prison / Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it).
15. Pavel Mazhei­ka – Belsat/ six years in prison / Part 2 of Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Assist­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ties).
16. Yauhen Merkis – Belsat/ 4 years in prison / Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it), Parts 1 and 2 of Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Assis­tance to extrem­ist activ­i­ty).
17. Dzmit­ry Sem­chanka – “Nation­al Tele­vi­sion” / three years in prison / Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (incite­ment to hatred or dis­cord).
18. Andrei Famin – Samiz­dat “Vest­ni­ki” / sev­en years in prison / Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order or active par­tic­i­pa­tion in them), Arti­cle 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Calls for actions aimed at caus­ing harm to the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it).
19. Larysa Shchyrako­va – Belsat/ three years and six months in prison/ Arti­cle 361–4 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Assist­ing extrem­ist activ­i­ty), Arti­cle 369–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus).
20. Pavel Pad­abed – Belsat/ four years in prison / Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it).
21. Viachaslau Laza­rau – Belsat/ five years in prison / Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in one).
22. Ali­ak­san­dr Mant­se­vich – “Regian News­pa­per” / four years of impris­on­ment / Arti­cle 369–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus).
23. Ihar Karnei – “Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists” / three years and ten months in prison / Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it), Arti­cle 411 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Mali­cious dis­obe­di­ence to the demands of the admin­is­tra­tion of a cor­rec­tion­al insti­tu­tion).
24. Ali­ak­san­dr Ziank­ou – Belsat/ three years in prison/ Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in one).
25. Ales Sabaleus­ki – 6TV Belarus/ four years in prison / Part 1 and Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in one).
26. Yauhen Hlushk­ou – 6TV Belarus / three years in prison / Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in one).
27. Ali­ak­san­dr Ihnat­siuk – “About Stolin” / six years in prison / Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order or active par­tic­i­pa­tion in them), Arti­cle 367 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Defama­tion against the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Part 2 of Arti­cle 208 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Extor­tion com­mit­ted repeat­ed­ly, either by a group of per­sons or with the use of vio­lence).
28. Ales Marchanka – Belsat/ three years in prison/ Part 3 of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in one).
29. Anton Kazel­s­ki – “Nation­al Tele­vi­sion” / three years in prison / Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (incite­ment to hatred or dis­cord), Arti­cle 361 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Calls for actions aimed at caus­ing harm to the nation­al secu­ri­ty of the Repub­lic of Belarus).
30. Ale­na Tsi­mashchuk – TV and Radio Com­pa­ny “Brest” / five years in prison / Part 3  of Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in it), Arti­cle 369–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Incite­ment of hatred or dis­cord).
31. Yauhen Nikalae­vich – “Media-Polesye” / one year and six months in prison / Art. 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order or active par­tic­i­pa­tion in them).
32. Vol­ha Radzivon­a­va – Free­lancer / four years in prison / Arti­cle 368 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Insult­ing the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Incite­ment to hatred or dis­cord), Arti­cle 367 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Defama­tion of the Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Belarus), Arti­cle 369–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Dis­cred­it­ing the Repub­lic of Belarus).
33. Dani­il Palian­s­ki – Free­lancer / in cus­tody in a pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­tre / Charged under Arti­cle 356 of the Crim­i­nal Code (trea­son against the state).
34. Ihar Ilyash – Free­lancer / Detained in Deten­tion / Charges Filed
35. Siarhei Chabot­s­ka – News web­site s13.ru/ in cus­tody in a pre-tri­al deten­tion cen­tre / Charged under Arti­cle 361–1 of the Crim­i­nal Code (Cre­ation of an extrem­ist for­ma­tion or par­tic­i­pa­tion in one).
36. Andrei Tolchyn – Detained / no infor­ma­tion on where­abouts

Names of sev­er­al media work­ers are not includ­ed in Annex 2 for safe­ty rea­sons.