Poland: media and personalities call for the release of journalists in Belarus
According to Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 28 media representatives are detained in Belarusian prisons Getty Images - Thierry Monasse
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Several independent Polish media editors, joined by representatives of the EU, Belarus and Poland, on Saturday September 25 called for the release of Belarusian journalists detained by the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
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According to Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 28 media representatives are being held in Belarusian prisons, and entire editorial staff have been forced to leave the country for comments critical of the government.
The joint action is called #UwolnicPoczobuta, "free Poczobut", named after Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut, Minsk correspondent for the newspaper
Gazeta Wyborcza,
detained for six months in Belarusian jails and facing 12 years in prison.
The project was supported in particular by the Vice-President of the European Commission Vera Jourova, Ms Tikhanovskaïa and the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, the Polish Olga Tokarczuk, who published their columns on Saturday September 25 in
Gazeta Wyborcza.
Appeal to international organizations
“
Democratic countries must side by side support repressed journalists and media personnel in Belarus.
We cannot forget them, forget their pain, what they are going through today.
The regime would like to be forgotten,
”Ms. Jourova wrote.
For her part, Ms. Tokarczuk called on “
international organizations and institutions to use all possible means of pressure on the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, with a view to freeing Andrzej Poczobut and all political prisoners in Belarus.
"
Among the media initiating the joint project are the major newspapers
Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza
and the Polish edition of
Newsweek
, ZET radio, TVN24 television channel and various websites.
After the re-election denounced as rigged by President Lukashenko, the protest movement of the summer of 2020 has been gradually repressed, with thousands of arrests, forced exiles and the imprisonments of opponents, media officials and NGOs.
(
with AFP
)
►Also read: Poland accuses Belarus of trying to provoke a migration crisis
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Poland
Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko
Freedom of press