A continuous crack in Belarus brought dozens of independent journalists into hard jails. world News

Talin, Estno: Journalist Cessenia Lutskina gave only half of her eight -year jail sentence Bellorus After being guilty of conspiracy to overthrow the government. He was forgiven after keeping unconsciousness in his cell with a brain tumor diagnosed during pre -custody.
“I was literally brought to the Penal Colony in a wheelchair, and I realized that journalism had actually turned into a life-threatening profession in Belarus,” she told the Associated Press in Villanius, Lithuania where she lives.
According to activists and former prisoners, Lutskina was one of dozens of journalists imprisoned in Belarus, where many facial beats, poor medical care and inability to contact lawyers or relatives. He compared the jails to the people of the Soviet era.
Group correspondent Boundaries Belarus is a prominent jailer of Europe journalists. According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, at least 40 long jail sentences are serving.
Lutskina quit her job to create a documentary for the state broadcaster of Belarus in 2020, when mass protests occurred after an election – widely condemned as a fraud – the powerful President Alexander Lushaneko in power kept in power. The government officials were arrested that year, tried to establish an alternative TV channel to make facts and facts, placed on a test and later convicted.
Other journalists flee to 9.5 million country and work from abroad. But many people have been curbed their work after cutting foreign aid by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which is an important source of money for many independent media.
“Journalists are not only forced to withstand oppression within the country, but also a sudden return of American aid, which leads many editorial offices to survive,” the eagle’s chair Andrei Bastunons told AP.
After the disputed election, the crack of 2020 was over 65,000 arrests between Lushaneko’s brutal Crackdown 2020-25. Thousands of people told about being beaten up by the police, the opposition figures were put in jail or forced into exile, and hundreds of thousands went abroad in fear.
More than 1,200 people behind bars in the country of 9.5 million are recognized as political prisoners by Belarus, a major rights group of Belarus. Its founder, the Nobel Prize Peace Prize winner Els Bialiatski, is among them.
Independent journalists are also washed away, outlets are closed or illegal. Lusashenko, in power for more than three decades, regularly calls them “enemies of our state”, and vows that those who fled will not be allowed to return.
Bastunts said, “The raids, arrests and misbehavior of journalists have been ignoring for five years, but now they have reached the point of ruthless,” Bastunons said, seeing that the families of journalists are being threatened. Families of some targeted journalists have asked rights groups not to publicly talk about their matters for fear of further vengeance.
Every month brings new arrests and search, in which almost all independent media leave Belarus. The crack also hits people who switch their attention to non -political materials.
In December, authorities arrested the entire editorial staff of the popular regional publication Intex-Press, which includes local news in the city of Barnawichi. Seven journalists were accused of “helping extremist activity”.
Extremism is the most common charge used for detaining, fine and jail. Even for reading independent media which has been declared extremist, there may be short -term arrests as a result. Working with restricted media or taking membership is seen as “helping extremism”, which is a prison sentence up to seven years. The websites of such outlets are blocked.
According to reporters without boundaries, 397 Belarusian journalists have been victims of the group’s unjust arrest since 2020, detained a few times.
The group said that at least 600 went abroad. Nevertheless, many still face pressure from the authorities who can open cases against them, put them on international desired lists, seize their property inside the Belarus and target relatives in the raid.
Reporters without Borders sued the international criminal court in January, accused Belarusi officials “crime against humanity,” torture, peat, imprisonment, harassment and exclusion of journalists.
For the Polish-Balarusi independent TV channel, a Belst journalist, Beating and isolation behind bars, were arrested, covering 2020 protests. Initially convicted the public order and sentenced to two years. He was prosecuted for treason while living in a punishment colony and convicted, his sentence increased by eight years and three months.
Her husband, political analyst Ihar Ilyash was arrested in October 2024 on charges of “defaming Belarus” and was put in jail waiting for the trial.
Now 31, Bakhwalav is several times placed in the “punishment isolation” cell and was beaten in 2022 in 2022.
Palina Sharannda-Panasiyuk, a former political prisoner who fled in Lithuania, told reporters that he heard that four jail guards had defeated Bakhwalao, who was crying and asking for a doctor.
The influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Vayboracza, a correspondent for the Gazeta Vayboracza and a prominent person in Belarus, was convicted of “Damage to the national security of Belarus” and sentenced to eight years, which he is serving in Novolotsk Penal Colony.
Human rights activists said that 52 -year -old Pokzobut is suffering from a serious heart condition and was sometimes kept in solitary imprisonment, sometimes for six months, the human rights activists said.
At the end of March, their migration in a punitive cell unit – the most rigid form of chaos – was extended for six months. Warsaw’s attempts to intervene have failed and Pokazobut has refused to ask Lakashnco for an forgiveness.
Is also imprisoned Marina zolatawaEditor of Tut.by – Once the most popular online news outlet in Belarus was closed by authorities in 2021. Zolatawa was convicted for abetment in 2023 and distributed to materials, urging action for the purpose of damaging national security, and sentenced to 12 years.
Simplications with ‘1984’, Lusashenko extended its rule for the seventh term in the January election that the opposition called a Persia. Since July, they have forgiven over 250 people, trying to improve relationships with West.
Belarusian analyst Valerie Karalevich Lusashenko said, “Looks at political prisoners as an object. He is ready to sell Europe and the United States to journalists and activists in exchange for reducing economic sanctions and clinging relations. And the process has already started.”
Shortly after Trump started his second term, Lusashenko released two American citizens and a journalist, a journalist of the Belarusian service of the news outlet funded by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an US government. Two more RFE/RL journalists, Ihar Lossic and Ir Karnei are imprisoned and were forced to record a repentance video.
Free journalist Andre Kuznechik, who spent three years in prison, left Belarus for Lithuania.
“On the first day of my release, I saw the list of journalists behind bars and I was surprised that how much it had increased during my imprisonment,” he told AP.
Lutskina, a journalist who also fled to Lithuania, brought his 14 -year -old son with him, he said “he should learn to separate the truth from lies.” They have both read George OrwellDystopian novel “1984”, which was banned in Belarus, and finding “amazing similarities” with their motherland.
“Belarus has turned into a gray country under a gray sky, where people are afraid of everything and whispered,” he said.
Lutskina, who is being treated for the tumor, who caused her fainting mantra, said that she actually feels less afraid than her partner Belarusis in jail.
He said that he roams with his head, he said, “They are afraid to lift their eyes and see a nightmare around them,” he said.