TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian authorities have arrested seven journalists who worked for an independent regional news outlet, a media watchdog said Thursday, the latest move in a sweeping crackdown on dissent and freedom of speech by the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists said the seven — journalists who worked for Intex-Press online newspaper in the western city of Baranavichy, including its founder Uladzimir Yanukevich — were arrested earlier this month and charged with “supporting extremist activities.”
Such accusations widely used by the authorities to silence independent voices. Belarus’ law enforcement agencies have launched a new wave of arrests in recent months seeking to uproot any sign of dissent ahead of January’s election in which Lukashenko is seeking a seventh term.
“It marks the arrest of the largest group of journalist from one media outlet in a year, signaling an escalation of repressions,” said the association's leader, Andrei Bastunets. “It looks like the authorities have decided to arrest all journalists they suspect of being disloyal ahead of January's presidential vote.”
Earlier this week, another independent journalist, Volha Radzivonava, was sentenced to four years in prison for her critical reports chronicling a sweeping crackdown on dissent under Lukashenko.
Belarusian authorities responded to mass protests sparked by the 2020 protests sparked by the widely disputed 2020 vote that gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office with a brutal crackdown in which about 65,000 people were arrested.
Leading opposition figures were either been imprisoned or fled the country, and independent media were shut. Human rights activists have said Belarus is holding about 1,300 political prisoners and that many of them are denied adequate medical care and contact with their families.
Like other independent news outlets, Intex-Press faced official pressure for covering the 2020 protests and was later stripped of registration and declared “extremist.”
The Belarusian Association of Journalists said 42 Belarusian journalists are currently in custody on politically-driven charges. Reporters Without Borders, an international media rights watchdog, said Belarus ranks fourth in the world in the number of jailed journalists.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years by relying on Kremlin subsidies and support, has allowed Russia to use his country’s territory to send troops into neighboring Ukraine in 2022 and to host some of its tactical nuclear weapons.