TVP S.A. announcement regarding the trial of Iryna Slaunikava


The Management Board of Telewizja Polska S.A. wishes to express its protest regarding the trial against its journalist and employee Ms Iryna Slaunikava starting on June 23, 2022 in Homiel, Belarus.

Ms Iryna Slaunikava has been in custody since October 30, 2021. A journalist at Telewizja Polska faces a threat of a sentence of 7 years in a penal colony for allegedly “organizing and preparing activities seriously violating the social order or actively participating in them” (Article 342 of the Penal Code) and “creating an extremist group or participating in it” (Article 361-1 of the Penal Code). The accusations formulated in this way clearly show the bad will of the authorities in Minsk, which use their security and judiciary apparatus – completely dependent on the political rule – to eliminate people such as Ms Iryna Slaunikava from public life, who, as a journalist of Polish Television and an activist in the independent media was bringing reliable information to Belarusian audience. It is regrettable to say that the history of persecution of journalists and media workers in Belarus in recent years has deprived any hope of a fair trial.

The repressions against Iryna Slaunikava and other independent journalists, of whom several dozen are currently held in Belarusian arrests and prisons, are an important element of the brutal fight of the authorities in Minsk against civil society, which cannot exist without access to independent media.

The Management Board of Telewizja Polska appeals to the entire international journalistic community to support Ms Iryna Slaunikava and others who, for their brave performance of their professional duties, are victims of persecution by the Belarusian authorities.

TWITTER