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May 20, 2021 Share
The European Union has slammed Belarus for its closure of the country’s biggest independent online news publication, Tut.by, as one of its reporters left prison after serving six months for her reporting on the death of a protester killed during a crackdown on demonstrations against authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.
In a statement on May 19, an EU spokesman called the blocking a day earlier of the popular news site an “act of continued repression and intimidation” against independent media.
Belarusian authorities also raided Tut.by’s offices in Minsk and other regions, and the homes of its journalists and employees, breaking the door leading to the apartment of Maryna Zolatava, the site’s editor in chief. The Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights group said on May 19 that 12 women and two men who worked for the publication had been detained.
18 May 2021, 18:33 UTC
Reacting to the news that TUT.by, one of Belarus’ leading independent online media outlets, was blocked today by the country’s Ministry of Information, Amnesty International’s Senior Campaigner on Belarus, Aisha Jung, said:
“This is a cowardly step taken by a government which fears truth and resorts to brutal measures to suppress human rights. It must end its suffocating crackdown on independent voices and immediately reverse the blocking of TUT.by.”
“The blocking of the TUT.by website is a full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom in Belarus, and leaves a gaping wound in the country’s access to independent sources of information. The scope of this attack cannot be underestimated since about half of Belarusian internet users refer to TUT.by for news, forums and other services.