Belarus: main independent media raided and blocked
Members of the security forces in the streets of Minsk on March 25, 2021 (illustrative image).
via REUTERS - BELAPAN
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The site of Belarus' main independent media outlet, TUT.BY, was blocked by authorities on Tuesday after a series of searches.
The opposition and independent media have faced a wave of repression since the unprecedented protest movement of 2020.
Publicity
Read more
TUT.BY site co-founder Kirill Voloshin announced on Telegram's online media channel: the portal's domain has been blocked.
The site was indeed inaccessible from Belarus but also from Russia, according to AFP journalists.
Earlier, its editor-in-chief, Marina Zolotova had reported searches of the editorial staff, her homes and the homes of journalists by "
agents of the financial investigation department (DFR) of the State Control Committee
".
This powerful investigative body that has targeted the opposition in the past has confirmed raiding TUT.BY and the offices of Hoster.by, an online web hosting solution provider.
An investigation for "tax fraud"
Belarusian authorities said in a statement that the management of TUT.BY was facing criminal proceedings for “tax evasion”.
President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, was confronted with a vast protest movement against his re-election deemed fraudulent in August 2020. Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Minsk and other cities, a huge mobilization for a country of barely 9.5 million inhabitants.
Alexander Lukashenko responded quickly with great firmness, arresting thousands of people by denouncing a plot hatched in the West.
Heavy prison sentences continue to fall for his critics.
Almost all the figures of the protest have been imprisoned or forced into exile, like the former presidential candidate
Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa
, a refugee in Lithuania.
Reporters already convicted
The independent media have also suffered repression.
TUT.BY is the main independent media in the country and it had widely covered in text and images the protest, but also the repression that followed.
The site claims up to 20 million unique daily visitors.
Several of its reporters were given short prison terms for participating in illegal protests, while covering them up.
Latest case to date, Lioubov Kasperovitch, sentenced Monday to 15 days of detention.
Other media have also been targeted by the authorities.
Just last week,
two journalists who wanted to cover an opponent's trial
were arrested and subjected to ill-treatment in detention, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
In February, Daria Tchoultsova and Katerina Bakhvalova, of the Polish-based opposition channel Belsat, were sentenced to two years in prison, accused of fomenting unrest while covering the protest movement in 2020. Most journalists working for foreign media have had their credentials withdrawn, de facto depriving them of legally working.
Belarusian authorities have banned the broadcasting in the country of the European television channel Euronews, a censorship measure according to voices critical of the regime.
Rapprochement with Russia
This crackdown has earned Belarus a battery of Western sanctions that have led it to move even closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The two countries, close allies, have had complicated relations for years, with Minsk suspecting Moscow of wanting to vassalize him.
In April,
Russia and Belarus further accused opponents of planning a coup
to assassinate Alexander Lukashenko.
The two countries implied that Western powers may have been complicit.
(
with AFP
)
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Belarus
Media
On the same subject
Belarus: repression hardens, protest increasingly silenced
Belarus: Was President Lukashenko the victim of an “attempted coup”?
International report
Belarus: excursion to Navahrudak where resistance continues