Belarus – “We cannot give up our struggle for freedom of the press”
Seven months after what was a terrible day for TUT.BY, Belarus’s leading independent news website, one of its journalists, Aleksandra Pushkina, describes for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) how this popular media outlet was persecuted and issues an appeal for support for her imprisoned colleagues and the country’s independent media.
On 18 May 2021, the Belarusian authorities blocked access to the TUT.BY website, raided its offices and arrested 15 members of its staff, who are still in prison. This dark day, the culmination of a long period of harassment of TUT.BY because of its reporting, forced some of its journalists to flee abroad. They include Aleksandra Pushkina, one of the founders of Zerkalo.io, literally the TUT.BY “mirror.” She has recounted these events in a video for RSF.
Belarus, where the state apparatus doesn’t hesitate to mistreat and torture imprisoned journalists, is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
Belarus
