Ukraine, Slovakia, and Czech Republic Condemn Blocking of tut.by

The Belarusian authorities should immediately release the journalists and stop blocking the media.

The ministries of foreign affairs of Ukraine, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic condemned the blocking of the tut.by portal, naviny.online reports.

“We condemn the blocking by the Belarusian authorities of the independent Belarusian media resource tut.by and the persecution of its journalists. Tut.by is known for its high standards of journalism and objective reporting. We call on the Belarusian authorities to stop attacks on freedom of speech,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko wrote on Twitter.

“Another blow to independent journalism in Belarus,” said the head of the Slovak diplomacy Ivan Korčok on Twitter. “I call on the Belarusian authorities to stop criminalizing and blocking media outlets, including tut.by, and to release all arrested journalists. They do not pose a threat to Belarus.”

The Czech Foreign Ministry “strongly condemns” the blocking of tut.by. “This is another sign of repression against independent media in Belarus. Freedom of speech and press is a prerequisite for a democratic society,” the statement reads.

Earlier, the EU, OSCE, Council of Europe, USA, Lithuania, Latvia, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders spoke out condemning the persecution of the portal.

On the morning of May 18, employees of the Financial Investigation Department (DFR) of the State Control Committee (KGC) came to the offices of the tut.by portal and the hosting provider hoster.by, the portal's co-founder Kiryl Valoshyn said on Facebook.

Later, the DFR reported that officials of TUT BY MEDIA LLC were suspected of tax evasion on a particularly large scale.

The tut.by website has been blocked since May 18. This decision was made by the Ministry of Information on the basis of a notification from the Prosecutor General's Office.

The current list of tut.by employees detained the day before: editor-in-chief Maryna Zolatava, general director Liudmila Chekina, deputy general director for technical issues Aliaksandr Daineka, chief accountant Angela Assad, deputy chief accountant Maryja Novik, deputy director Iryna Rybalka, chief engineer Ala Lapatka, manager Andrei Audzeeu, editor Volha Loika, journalist Alena Talkachova, lawyer Katsiaryna Tkachenka.