New escalation of violence against journalists

Reporters Without Borders condemns the heavy-handed raids which masked members of the Minsk police carried out on 16 March on the premises of two opposition media, the newspaper Narodnaya Volya and the Charter 97 website. Charter 97 editor Natalia Radzina was hit in the face as the police stormed in the website’s office. The police also searched Radzina’s home and the homes of Narodnaya Volya journalist Maryna Koktysh and another journalist, Iryna Khalip. Eight Charter 97 computers and other computer equipment and personal electronic equipment were seized. The raids were linked their coverage of the prosecution of three police officers in the southeastern city of Homyel and Viktar Yermakow, the head of the interior ministry’s Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime Department, on charges of abuse of authority and blackmailing members of the Committee for State Security (KGB). Three of them were given sentences ranging from three to four years in jail last month. The police already raided Narodnaya Volya on 17 February, seizing the computer and files of Koktysh, who had been covering the case. “There are no legal grounds for these heavy-handed raids, which even violate the Belarus constitution,” Reporters Without Borders said. “These journalists are just doing their job and must not be regarded as offenders for exposing cases that are embarrassing for the police and a government ministry.” The authorities also tried in vain to search the apartments of journalist Aleh Biabenin and European Belarus Civil Initiative coordinator Dzmitry Bandarenka on 16 March.