BelTA case: Independent news agency employees interrogated en masse


BelaPAN journalists have been summoned by the Belarusian Investigative Committee over the so-called BelTA copyright infringement case.

On September 27, Dzmitry Navazhylau and Raman Salikau are to meet with the investigators as witnesses, Tatsyana Karavyankova – as a suspect.

On September 28, BelaPAN chief editor Iryna Leushyna will have to appear for questioning, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reports.

Over the past week, Syarhei Karalevich, Andrey Alyaksandrau and Andrey Serada, who are also the journalists at the only independent news agency in Belarus, have also been interrogated as witnesses.

On August 7, an unprecedented wave of media workers’ arrests started in Belarus.

After Iryna Akulovich, Director of the state-run news agency BelTA, had reported ‘illegal access to their premium content’, the Belarusian Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under the article ‘unauthorized access to computer information, made out of personal interest, which caused significant harm’. According to the authorities’ version, some employees of the above-mentioned media outlets have used another person’s password and got information owned by the Lukashenka mouthpiece over the past two years.

Tut.by journalists Halina Ulasik, Maryna Zolatava, Hanna Kaltyhina, Ulyana Babayed, Dzmitry Bobryk, Hanna Yermachonak, BelaPAN editors Tatsyana Karavyankova, Iryna Leushyna and Andrey Serada, Deutsche Welle correspondent Paulyuk Bykouski and the Belarusians and Market journalist Alyaksei Zhukau were detained. Later Bobryk, Serada and Babayed were released. As part of the case, four journalists of the property portal realt.by were interrogated.

A few days later, all the journalists were released from custody, but they are still under gag order. All the suspects in the BelTA case are banned from leaving the country.

As reported earlier, Dzmitry Bobryk wrote that after a three-hour interrogation in the Investigative Committee on August 7, he signed a cooperation agreement. According to him, there were direct threats to him and his relatives. However, after law enforcers realized they would get no information. their pressure on him intensified, Bobryk claims.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists called the situation a ‘flagrant violation of freedom of expression and media freedom’. According to the BAJ, the actions of law enforcement agencies were ‘excessive’.

НМ, belsat.eu

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