Two more independent journalists were detained for alleged participation in the protests following the disputed election. Boris Goretsky of Poland based Radio Racyja and Yevgeny Vaskovich of Bobruisky Kunyer were detained by KGB authorities on Monday. Goretsky was sentenced to 14 days in prison on 18 January for participation in anti-government protests on 19 December.
Two more journalists Andrzej Poczobut and Irina Charniauka were detained by the KGB yesterday. The journalists’ house was raided and their computers confiscated by the authorities prior to their arrest. Poczobut is a correspondent for the Polish Daily Gazeta Wyborcza and Charniauka a freelance journalist. Over the last two weeks at least seven independent reporters have been subject to raids by the KGB authorities following the unrest after the presidential election on 19 December.
Minsk-based radio station Autoradio, has been shut down after its licence was cancelled. The reason outlined by the supervisory commission was the station’s “failure to stick to its declared programming concept and the dissemination of information that contained public appeals for extremist actions”. Autoradio had legally broadcast advertising for opposition candidates in the run up to the 19 December election.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed concern for political prisoners being held in Belarus in the aftermath of December’s presidential elections.
A UN spokesman told reporters: “[Ban is] concerned about the continued detention of journalists, opposition candidates and their supporters and calls for their release and the full observance of human rights and due process.”
Mr Ban also criticised Belarus’s closure of the Minsk office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)