Belarus again blocks the pages of a major independent news site. After Tut.by, the largest independent site, was taken offline in May, Nasja Niva followed today.
Like Tut.by, Nasha Niva has reported extensively in recent years on the protests against President Lukashenko’s regime and on the thousands of arrests and beatings of opponents of this regime. Editor-in-chief Yachor Martinovich and a number of his colleagues have been arrested. They are said to have spread “illegal information”. It is not clear what this means,
The editorial offices of two regional news sites were also searched by agents of the secret service. The editor-in-chief of yet another news site has been arrested.
Kidnapping of journalists
“The regime is so afraid of the truth that it blocks all independent media, that foreign journalists are not allowed in, that it closes editorial offices and that it puts journalists behind bars,” opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told Telegram. “They hope by kidnapping journalists and shutting down the media, they hope the people will forget the regime’s deceit, violence and repression. But our memory and the truth are stronger.”
She calls for support for independent media by following them on Telegram or watching them over a VPN connection. Tut.by continued on Telegram after its shutdown in May and is followed by half a million people there.
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