Belarus enters the top five anti-leaders in deals with journalists
Record number of journalists who happened behind bars in 2022 due to their professional activities. This is reported in new proposal to protect journalists. 363 reporters are imprisoned as of December 1st. The top five are Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey and Belarus.
Among the main factors that influenced the repressive restrictions on the reduction of freedom of speech: the authors of the alleged powers to contain the discontent of citizens in the post-COVID world and the consequences of the war in Russia with Ukraine.
In addition to letting journalists into protective power, other methods of “criminalizing journalism” are being used, such as embedding easily with a broad interpretation of the concepts of fake news and vet cleta.
So in Russia, adopted since March, laws control the situation with the conflict in Ukraine, prohibit the spread of “war”. The independent journalists who remained in Russia were used to leave the country. Dozens of Russian journalists escaped prison by fleeing the country, according to a report on the takeover of journalists’ protection. Of the 19 reporters who are currently behind bars in Russia, a harsh sentence awaits in a few days – up to 10 years in prison. They are accused of spreading fake news.
CPJ Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia Gulnoza Said (Gulnoza Said, CPJ Program Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia)
“We have been doing our research since 1992. There are so many journalists in Russia, despite the fact that the situation with the freedom of the press was bad and enough for almost all the years of Putin’s possession. The situation worsened, mainly due to the occupation [территорий] Because in Ukraine, the authorities almost from the first days began to control how information is presented,” Said said.
In the conclusion, which concludes the five anti-leaders, as of December 1, 26 journalists are deprived of their liberty. For comparison, last year this number reached nineteen. Two reporters were sentenced to 10 or more years in prison. More than half are still awaiting sentencing. Supreme shipping is high treason. Said alarms journalists – continued repression of Lukashenka after mass protests in 2020
“The case of Katerina Andreeva from BelSat – broadcasting (ed. – TV channel), which was carried out from Poland, is generally an egregious case, because she was first sentenced, along with her cameraman Daria Chultsova, to the upcoming year of imprisonment, and she had to be out [на свободу] this year in September. And now she will be in prison for eight years, as the Belarusian authorities decided. This is just a case, because it is terrible that these are long sentences, and the conditions in the prisons of Belarus, as well-known people tell us, are simply terrible, in particular with regard to women, are [в заключении].
I want to mention another case, for example, the journalist Ksenia Lutskina, whose brain tumor is getting worse and worse. Her [осматривает] an ordinary doctor, paramedic, in a dispensary and causes defiant analgesics. Although, as her father said, her tumor continues to grow, and it manifests itself from terrible headaches. So I wanted to say that the situation [в Беларуси] has worsened and, most likely, the decoration will be, because we see that Lukashenka and other officials in Belarus are not even trying to find any justification for this repression, but simply continue it in a very tough and cruel style,” the expert added.
Alleged cases also cite violations of the rights of journalists in Tajikistan and Georgia.