Freedom House condemned raid on TUT.by in Belarus
Freedom House found the assault on Belarus' independent media as another attempt by the Lukashenko regime to demolish independent journalism in Belarus, as this is said in the alert of the international human rights NGO.
“Today’s assault against TUT.by, which involved launching bogus criminal investigations, raids on the offices and the homes of TUT.by journalists, and detentions, is another alarming attempt by the Lukashenka regime to demolish the remnants of independent journalism in Belarus,” said Marc Behrendt, director of Europe and Eurasia programs at Freedom House.
As Marc Behrendt said, the authorities attempted to silence opponents.
““By attacking the last vestiges of independent media inside the country, Lukashenka is trying to silence dissenting voices and maintain his grip on power. We are calling on the Belarusian authorities to respect the rule of law, human rights and freedom of the press, drop all bogus charges against TUT.by and its staff, and immediately release all journalists and allow them to freely provide authentic news to the Belarusian people.”
As IMI reported today, eight employees of the Belarusian portal TUT.BY remain detained as of today.
Earlier, on May 18, as IMI reported, the access to TUT.BY web site has been blocked by the Ministry of Information of Belarus, and the offices have been searched by the officials of the Financial Investigations Department of the State Control Committee.
On January 19, 2021, TUT.BY was deprived of its media status.
On December 3, 2020, the Economic Court of Minsk ruled to deprive the TUT.BY portal of the status of a mass medium. For its part, the portal filed an appeal against the decision of the Economic Court of Minsk.
On September 29, 2020, the Ministry of Information of Belarus deprived TUT.BY of the status of a mass media for three months from October 1.
On September 18, 2020, the ministry seized the court asking to stop publishing TUT.BY.
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