BAJ chairperson: Freedom of speech is violated in “Belarussophobes’ case”

The Belarusian Association of Journalists has discovered the violation of journalists’ ethics in the detained authors’ articles. However, this is not a crime. It is not clear what articles were the reason for the arrest of Dzmitry Alimkin, Yury Paulavets and Syarhei Shyptenka. However, if the articles mentioned by Minister of Information Liliya Ananich in the letter to her Russian counterpart Mikhail Shvydki are to blame for the arrests, it means that ‘one absurd sentence has resulted in three arrests’, BAJ chairperson Andrei Bastunets told Euroradio.

“There are some law violations and the violation of journalists’ ethics in some of the articles. However, I do not see any violation of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus in them. We can see the state rudely interfering in the freedom of speech and opinion,” Bastunets noted.

“The law should be applied to everyone and if we are against the detentions of Andrzej Poczobut and Eduard Palchys, we should stick to this logic and take the same position in other situations.” If no other articles containing violations of the Criminal Code are mentioned in the case, BAJ may defend the detained authors of Regnum, Bastunets admitted.

You can listen to the full interview given by BAJ chairperson Andrei Bastunets to Zmitser Lukashuk on Euroradio here.