Ministers Kuleba and Tkachenko condemn persecution of journalists in Belarus

Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba and Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko have expressed their concern over pressure and persecution of journalists in Belarus.
This is said in a joint statement of the ministers, which was published on the website of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The entire democratic world recognizes mass media as fourth estate and does not interfere with their professional activities. Attacks on the freedom of speech, endangering lives and well-being of journalists in Belarus constitute outright violations of these basic principles,” reads the statement.

The ministers stated that Ukraine strongly stands for the protection of democracy and media freedom and condemns, together with the international community, attacks of Belarussian authorities on representatives of the media.

“Ministers express their particular concern with destructive actions of Russia which fully usurped the information space of Belarus using its army of propagandists, thus depriving Belarussians of their right to freely access various sources of information,” reads the statement.

As reported, mass protests going on in Belarus since August 2020 against the rigging of the results of a presidential election, in which Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner. The ruling regime continues to repress the people, who are massively defending their right to democratic choice.

Among other things, Belarusian security forces have searched the homes of at least 25 journalists and human rights activists on February 16.

The Investigative Committee of Belarus explained the searches by the intention to "establish the circumstances of the financing of the protest activities."