Journalists Working in Belarus for Foreign Media Are Massively Deprived of Their Accreditation

"Cockroach" is scared to death of a free press.

Earlier detained journalists of the German TV channel ARD film crew have been stripped of their accreditation. Their Russian representatives will be deported from Belarus. A protocol has been drawn up against the Belarusian representative for his alleged participation in a mass protest. It also became known that Belarusian journalists working for the BBC, Reuters, Radio Svaboda, AFP, and other companies have been denied accreditation, tut.by reports.

Ilya Kuznetsov, as well as Russian citizens Sergey Sergeyev and Mikhail Fomin (all three were accredited by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry as journalists of the ARD TV channel) were detained in Minsk the day before. The journalists spent the night at the police department; they were released only in the morning.

- A protocol was drawn up under Art. 23.34 - active participation in a mass action - and deprived of accreditation "in order to ensure the information security of the country," said Ilya Kuznetsov.

According to Ilya, his Russian colleagues are deported from Belarus with a ban on returning to the country for five years.

A representative of the Russian embassy picked up the Russian journalists. It is unknown when the trial of Ilya Kuznetsov will take place.

The foreign ministry accreditation, which allows them to legally work in the country, was also deprived of the BBC journalists Tatyana Melnichuk and Tatyana Yanutsevich.

- They called in the morning from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and said that by order of the Interdepartmental Commission on Security in the Information Sphere, accreditation had been canceled from today, - said Tatiana Melnichuk. - When asked what I was guilty of, they answered that they were instructed to convey only this information.

Radio Svaboda informs that by the decision of the same commission its correspondents Alies Dashchynski, Aleh Hruzdzilovich, Uladzimir Hridzin, Aliaksandra Dynko were deprived of their accreditation.

Vasily Fedosenko (Reuters), Sergei Gapon (Associated Press), Alexandra Boguslavskaya (Deutsche Welle), Gennady Sharipkin (RFi) are also on the list of those who have their accreditation canceled.

Let us remind you that the day before it became known that the famous Swedish photojournalist, winner of World Press Photo Paul Hanson was also deported from Belarus with a ban on entry for five years.

Hanson was detained on 27 August. More than 50 journalists were detained in Minsk that day. The Belarusian Association of Journalists appealed to the head of the Investigative Committee with a demand to initiate a criminal case for obstructing the lawful professional activity of the journalist.