Journalist Kiryl Pazniak declared a political prisoner

Human rights groups have rec­og­nized jour­nal­ist Kiryl Paz­ni­ak, detained in ear­ly Sep­tem­ber this year, as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er. The joint state­ment by Belaru­sian human rights orga­ni­za­tions was pub­lished today, Sep­tem­ber 17. In total, the list names 17 new polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

Jour­nal­ist Kiryl Paz­ni­ak. Video screen­shot

Paz­ni­ak was report­ed­ly detained in Min­sk on Sep­tem­ber 4, the same day the Belaru­sian State Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee (KGB) des­ig­nat­ed the YouTube chan­nel Plat­for­ma 375 as an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion.” Author­i­ties claimed the jour­nal­ist was linked to the chan­nel.

Two days before the KGB’s deci­sion, on Sep­tem­ber 2, the Par­tyzan­sky Dis­trict Court in Min­sk had already labeled the chan­nel “extrem­ist con­tent.”

Launched in April 2021, Plat­for­ma 375 described itself as an inde­pen­dent media plat­form pub­lish­ing news from Belarus, inves­ti­ga­tions, talk shows, and doc­u­men­taries. The chan­nel cur­rent­ly has 4,050 sub­scribers and 3.41 mil­lion views.

Between 2021 and 2022, the plat­form host­ed sev­er­al debates between pro-gov­ern­ment pro­pa­gan­dists and their oppo­nents liv­ing in exile. The last broad­cast took place on Decem­ber 3, 2022, fea­tur­ing Ryhor Azaron­ak (STV) and Yury Tser­akh (SB. Belarus Segod­nya) from Min­sk, and Aleh Taler­chyk (co-founder of the ByPol asso­ci­a­tion of for­mer Belaru­sian law enforcers) and TV host Dzia­n­is Dudzin­s­ki from War­saw.

Under Belaru­sian law, indi­vid­u­als involved in an “extrem­ist for­ma­tion” can face crim­i­nal charges under Arti­cle 361–1 (“Cre­ation of or par­tic­i­pa­tion in an extrem­ist for­ma­tion”) or Arti­cle 361–4 (“Assis­tance to extrem­ist activ­i­ty”). Both car­ry penal­ties of up to 10 years in prison.