In Belarus, the court in the case of the international media portal TUT.by
Published: Edited:
The authorities closed the process. In the dock are Lyudmila Chekina, director general of the TUTS BY MEDIA enterprise portal, and Marina Zolotova, journalist and editor-in-chief of TUT.by. They face five to 12 years in prison. They have been in custody for 19 months.
There will be no journalists Olga Loiko and Elena Tolkacheva, legal adviser of the enterprise Ekaterina Tkachenko at the trial – they left Belarus. Tkachenko is under arrest. On March 17, 2022, Olga Loiko, editor-in-chief of the political and economic block TUT.by, was expelled from SIZO-1 under a non-disclosure agreement, the charge was not dropped. On July 18, 2022, journalist Elena Tolkacheva was expelled from SIZO-1 on non-disclosure, after 14 months of observation subscription, the charges were not dropped. In October 2022, the KGB selected Loiko and Tolkacheva on the list of “persons involved in reactionary activities.”
How it all started
The detention of portal journalists, as well as employees of the Belarusian media, the presence of the elections on August 9, 2020. Pro-government telegram channels and popular media have repeatedly pointed to a destructive and hostile public, in their opinion, the activities of the most popular media portal in the country.
On the morning of May 18, 2021, the security forces arrived at the home of some company representatives, representatives of partner organizations, at TUT.by offices in Minsk and regional centers. Some were detained in the status of a witness, in the evening of the same day they were placed in a temporary detention center in the Akrestsin case as a criminal in a criminal case. A total of 15 people were arrested at the time.
► The most popular news site Tut.by was blocked in Belarus, journalists were searched
The State Control Committee announced on May 18 that in relation to persons involved in initiating a criminal case on tax evasion on an especially large scale. The essence of the claims of the state – being a resident of the Park of High Technologies, “TUT BY MEDIA” received a reward that was not related to the need allowed for residents.
accusation
After 19 months, the state accuses the CEO Lyudmila Chekina under three articles of the Criminal Code:
- Part 2 Art. 243 (evasion from collecting taxes, fees on an especially large scale);
- Part 4 Art. 16, part 1, art. 3 art. 130 (organization of intentional actions aimed at inciting racial, national, religious or other social hatred or discord on the basis of racial, national, religious, linguistic or social affiliation, committed by groups of persons or entailed grave consequences);
- Part 4 Art. 16, part 1, art. 3 art. 361 (management of calls for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus, exclusively using the means of wide information or the global computer network Internet).
Chief Editor Marina Zolotova:
- Part 2 Art. 243 (evasion from collecting taxes, fees on an especially large scale);
- Part 3 Art. 130 (incitement of racial, national, religious or other social hatred of the rose or none on the basis of racial, national, religious, linguistic and or social affiliation, the perfect number of persons or entailed grave consequences);
- Part 3 Art. 361 (calls to action aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus, made using the media or the global computer network Internet).
Journalists Olga Loiko and Elena Tolkacheva:
- Part 6 Art. 16, part 1, art. 2 tbsp. 243 (assistance in exclusion from the collection of taxes, fees on an especially large scale);
- Part 3 Art. 130 (incitement of racial, national, religious or other social hatred of the rose or none on the basis of racial, national, religious, linguistic and or social affiliation, the perfect number of persons or entailed grave consequences);
- Part 3 Art. 361 (calls to action aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus, made using the media or the global computer network Internet).
- Legal Counsel Ekaterina Tkachenko:
- Part 6 Art. 16, part 1, art. 2 tbsp. 243 (assistance in exclusion from the collection of taxes, fees on an especially large scale);
- Part 1 Art. 342 (active participation in group activities that grossly violate public order).
Under the article, the defendants face from five to 12 years in prison.
On the way to an alternate reality
After the defeat of TUT.by, part of the editorial staff was referred several times and resumed work as a resource “Zerkalo” (zerkalo.io). Project manager Alexandra Pushkina told RFI that Zerkalo managed to regain its position, although there are some nuances.
“As of May 18, TUT.by had three and a half million users, Zerkalo.io now has four million, that is, according to this indicator, we have recovered and even more. But if we talk about article views, then where TUT.by had a million views, Zerkalo.io now has 300 thousand,” said Alexandra Pushkina.
On the eve of the trial, the editors of Zerkalo made an appeal. We present excerpts from it:
The whole process is surreal, which can be called the final push on the road to an alternative reality, where real news is evil. And evil, as you know, must be defeated. A year of national unity has passed, for the minimum year of keeping his memory, and now here is the year of peace and the creation of a sharp reduction (the Belarusian authorities dedicate every year to a certain goal – RFI), and in Belarus everything is stable: raids, searches, torture, isolation wards, sentences, terms , days, weeks, months, years—the unannounced five-year period of repression is proceeding at a Stakhanovite pace. The cells of some political prisoners in pre-trial detention centers are guarded by others, no less political, new cases are opened as soon as the old ones are sent to court. The destinies of Belarusians operate along the conveyor of repressions from one shop to another, until they influence the iron sealing operation with the “extremist” tag in a prominent place. And it doesn’t matter who you are: a doctor, a former investigator, an officer, an official, a journalist, a hard worker from a factory or a Nobel laureate—
For our country, TUT.by was, without exaggeration, a great project. It does not depend on income, relying only on itself, it can become a place with which readers read Belarusians their day. The place where we all read the real news.
In the country that most of the Belarusians have to build, independent media is one of the unshakable tables taken into account. In this country, employees of TUT.by, Nasha Niva, BelaPAN – these are respected people, representatives of society, officials and politicians line up in order to convey their ideas to the masses through media materials.
But you yourself know very well that the regime in modern Belarus has chosen an alternative road, where real news is the main enemy.
We in the editorial office have no doubts that the TUT.by case is completely fabricated and was discovered only because the regime is afraid of journalists. Afraid of real news.
We translate that TUT.by employees should be released in the courtroom.
We know that this did not happen. Calculation in modern Belarus on a fair trial is not required.
This political trial is not the first, not the tenth, or even the thousandth.
Our beloved country is sinking deeper and deeper into darkness. When, it seems, the next news, which plunges into a stupor, is older.
But we promise you to do everything so that they fail. For the sake of our colleagues who have started judging today, and for the sake of the future of our country, we will conduct the TUT.by case — and indeed, how things really are in Belarus. And we ordered everything so that the lie does not become the truth.
As of January 9, human rights activists in Belarus 1441 people.