Former state TV journalist Dzmitry Semchanka pressured to appear in propaganda film while in prison

For­mer Belaru­sian state TV host Dzmit­ry Sem­chanka, impris­oned since 2022, has report­ed­ly faced pres­sure and provo­ca­tions in Ivat­se­vichy Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty No. 22, includ­ing efforts to coerce him into par­tic­i­pat­ing in a pro­pa­gan­da film.

Dzmit­ry Sem­chanka in court, March 2023. Pho­to: BelTA

A for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er who shared a cell block with Sem­chanka told  human rights group Vias­na that Sem­chanka was offered to give inter­views to pro-gov­ern­ment media and was repeat­ed­ly placed in a pun­ish­ment cell.

Before August 2020, Sem­chanka had a suc­cess­ful career in state media. A native of Mahil­iou, he joined local tele­vi­sion and lat­er moved to the cap­i­tal, becom­ing a promi­nent host on the state-run ANT TV chan­nel. He led a team cov­er­ing pres­i­den­tial events and won sev­er­al media awards.

After the con­test­ed 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, Sem­chanka resigned in protest. He pub­licly con­demned police vio­lence against demon­stra­tors and mis­in­for­ma­tion in state media, and was sub­se­quent­ly sen­tenced to 15 days of admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion for par­tic­i­pat­ing in a protest march.

On Sep­tem­ber 15, 2022, Sem­chanka and his wife were detained. Ini­tial­ly sen­tenced to 15 days for “dis­or­der­ly con­duct,” he was giv­en anoth­er 13 days for alleged­ly shar­ing “extrem­ist con­tent” online. A forced con­fes­sion video appeared on pro-gov­ern­ment Telegram chan­nels, where Sem­chanka admit­ted to post­ing con­tent that «incit­ed hos­til­i­ty towards police.»

Dzmit­ry Sem­chanka. Pho­to: Social media

While serv­ing admin­is­tra­tive deten­tion, author­i­ties opened a crim­i­nal case against him under Arti­cle 130 of the Crim­i­nal Code—incitement of social hatred. The case ref­er­enced three social media posts from 2020 and 2021. Dur­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion, Sem­chanka denied any intent to incite hatred but acknowl­edged crit­i­ciz­ing offi­cials and law enforce­ment.

On March 23, 2023, the Min­sk City Court sen­tenced him to three years in prison.

He was lat­er added to the Inte­ri­or Ministry’s list of indi­vid­u­als involved in “extrem­ist activ­i­ty” and labeled a “ter­ror­ist” by the KGB.

In Novem­ber 2022, Belaru­sian human rights groups rec­og­nized Sem­chanka as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.