Reporters Without Borders Condemned OMON Beating Of Journalist

Human rights activists point out that, despite the release of political prisoners, the situation of human rights in Belarus is “still catastrophic”.

The human rights organization Reporters Without Borders has condemned the beating of Tut.by reporter Pavel Dabravolski by the police, along with other violations of the rights of journalists. The human rights organization issued a special statement on that and published it on its website, Tut.by reports.

The human rights activists point out that, despite the release of political prisoners, the situation of human rights in Belarus is “still catastrophic”. On the results of 2015 Belarus was ranked 157th out of 180 countries in the organization’s latest World Press Freedom Index.

“Independent journalists must cease at once to be the targets of judicial harassment and police brutality.” – said Johan Beer, the head of the Reporters Without Borders for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The organization considers the recent beating of Pavel Dabravolski by riot policemen in the court of Frunzenski district to be an example of such “police brutality”. The circumstances of the attack on TUT.BY website reporter and the subsequent trial (where the witnesses were the police officers who beat him) are described in details in the statement.

The wave of 28 fines to journalists working for foreign media in 2015 is another example of journalist rights’ violations given in Reporters Without Borders’ statement. The human rights organization calls such pressure “a classic Belarusian set-up”: first independent media inside Belarus are systematically denied accreditation, allowing to fine journalists for cooperation with foreign media later. The latest victims in 2016 include Kanstantsin Zhukouski, who was fined on 14 and 20 January totalling to Br13.65 million (612 euros), and Larysa Shchyrakova, who was fined Br4.62 million (221 euros) for cooperation with Belsat TV channel.