Journalist Hennadz Barbarych To Be Tried In Minsk

The protocol against the journalist has been drawn up in absentia.

Journalist Hennadz Barbarych is accused of preparing material on the BelTA case for Radio Racyja (Poland) without accreditation of the Belarusian authorities.

His colleague has told the website of the Belarusian Association of Journalists that on Sunday, he received by mail a police protocol and a summons to the Partyzanski district court for December 13, 16:30.

– Nobody from the police has even talked to me. The protocol has been drawn up in absentia for the material that concerns the “BelTA case.” The protocol states that I was near the building of the Investigative Committee in Minsk, I interviewed BelaPAN editor-in-chief Iryna Leushyna and prepared the material for Radio Racyja, – Barbarych says.

Hennadz Barbarych is a famous Belarusian journalist. Previously, he worked in the BelaPAN information company, the Belarusians and Market newspaper, he is the winner of the Dzmitry Zavadski Award.

Bringing journalists to responsibility for cooperation with foreign media has become a real curse of recent years. This year alone, Belarusian journalists have been fined large sums for cooperating with the Belsat TV channel and Belarusian Radio Racyja more than 100 times.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists declares the illegality of bringing journalists to justice under Art. 22.9 Code of Administrative Offenses.

However, neither repeated appeals, nor solidarity campaigns, nor international involvement can stop the persecution of the colleagues. This problem was one of the topics of the meeting of BAJ Chairman Andrei Bastunets with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, held in Vienna on December 10.