Journalists’ associations of Armenia, Georgia and other countries express support to Belarusian colleagues

The media organizations and journalists’ associations of Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Sweden have expressed their support to and solidarity with their colleagues in Belarus. “Journalists of Belarusian and foreign media, as well as bloggers covering the protests, are being exposed to severe violence and repressed by the authorities. The unimpeded and safe activities of journalists are protected by international conventions and the laws of all civilized countries.

The creation of obstacles for the work of journalists is a violation of the laws of Belarus. Apprehending and brutally beating Belarusian and foreign journalists working in Belarus, damaging their equipment, turning off the Internet and committing several other violations of the rights and freedom of _expression_ of journalists must be immediately put to an end and investigated, and the law-enforcement officers who committed them and their leaders who gave relevant orders must be strictly punished. We are following the development of events. We express our support to and admiration of how our Belarusian colleagues continue to provide coverage of the events in the country amid the violence and in danger. We publish articles to inform the public about what is going on in Belarus and thank you for your work.

We call on our fellow journalists and media organizations of other countries to express their positions on the events taking place in Belarus and call on their governments to have a diplomatic and economic influence in order to put an end to the violence against journalists, bloggers, activists and citizens of Belarus.”