MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th February, 2021) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the international community to react as Belarus sentenced two reporters for the Polish Belsat broadcaster who covered anti-government protests to two years of imprisonment each.
On Thursday, a Minsk court handed two-year sentences to Daria Chultsova and Ekaterina Andreeva, who work for the broadcaster, which is not accredited in Belarus. They were detained in November after their live broadcast of police dispersing protests in Minsk. The two were charged with "organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order."
"The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) and their affiliate in Belarus, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), strongly condemn the criminalisation of journalism by President [Alexander] Lukashenko's regime and call on the international community to react firmly," the press release read.
The IFJ went on to demand the review of the reporters' cases, their immediate release and an end to "the persecution of journalists and the media in Belarus."
European Federation of Journalists President Mogens Blicher Bjerregard said that Lukashenko's "repressive drift" requires "a rapid and firm reaction from the international community." He called on the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE "not to be complicit in the regime's abuses."
