|
'Nobody is safe' in Belarus, says independent media heiress behind Tut.by
[DAILYTIMES.PK] The heiress to Belarus’ largest independent news outlet, Evgeniya Chernyavskaya, says her country’s widening crackdown on media and opposition has imperiled freedom of speech and threatened lives."Nobody is safe now in Belarus especially journalists," says the heiress to Tut.by, the news outlet whose survival is now fragile, after members of its team were detained after office and home raids. On May 18, authorities blocked the site after searching and closing its offices and arresting 12 people, including several journalists and Yulia, Chernyavskaya’s mother. Officially it was a tax evasion investigation but Chernyavskaya has no doubt that her country’s most popular independent news site was targeted as part of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown, that followed mass protests in 2020 against his rule. Chernyavskaya, whose late father Yuri Zisser founded the news site, has been organising remotely from Tel Aviv in Israel, where she has lived for five years. In Belarus, "there is no freedom of speech, no freedom to access information," the 33-year-old entrepreneur said, who until the raids had maintained a low profile. "Belarus definitely has a dictatorship today — it got worse during the last year, and it’s very dangerous," she told AFP. "Even people who go to the store to buy bread, they are unsafe, because they could be stopped, and their phone could be checked." The country’s stifling of dissent escalated Sunday, when Belarus triggered international fury in arresting opposition blogger Roman Protasevich, after intercepting his Ryanair flight. Related: Belarus: 2021-05-27 Biletsky says Protasevich was in Azov Regiment as a journalist Belarus: 2021-05-27 Warroom: 30,000 fake ballots found In Georgia audit… ‘They're not real' Belarus: 2021-05-27 Belarus leader says detained journalist was plotting 'bloody rebellion' Posted by: Fred 2021-05-28 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=603048 |