Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
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- Number of jailed journalists spikes to new global record
- Killing with impunity: Vast majority of journalists’ murderers go free
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- Afghanistan’s media crisis
- Attacks on the press: The deadliest countries in 2021
- ‘Night and day’: The Biden administration and the press
- Number of journalists behind bars reaches global high
- Killers of journalists still get away with murder
Reporter Without Borders
OPC Condemns Arrest of Press Club Staff in Belarus
The Overseas Press Club of America denounces the detention of five staff members of Press Club Belarus on charges of tax evasion.
Julia Slutskaya, founder and president of the club, and four other staff members were arrested on Dec. 22 and the club’s offices were searched and closed. The homes of those arrested were also searched.
Press Club Belarus and the OPC are members of the International Association of Press Clubs (IAPC). Jaroslaw Wlodarczyk, secretary of the IAPC, said the government of Alexander Lukashenko yesterday extended the group’s detention by 10 days to Jan. 7.
“Lawyers are taking all possible steps to ensure their immediate release. However, taking into account the politically motivated previous trials in Belarus, the chances of their release are slim, especially in the absence of pressure,” Wlodarczyk said.
More than a dozen other Belarusian press club staff were evacuated to Lithuania and Ukraine and are scheduled to go to Poland in January and operate from Warsaw, he added.