When a passenger plane was forced to land in Minsk in 2021, one man screamed: ‘They’ll kill me’. Many of his countrymen and women now realise they are also not safe, even in exile<br>
the russian government. vladimir putin needs some high value western hostages. evan gershkovich is a high value hostage. he works for the wall streetjournal. he s a high profile person. and the reason putin wants to take these hostages is that he has a bunch of people who have been arrested, a bunch of spies and a bunch of money launderers who have been arrested around the world. and he wants to have a currency to get those people traded back. and after brittney griner, the us basketball player, was so successfully swapped for viktor bout, the arms dealer, i think putin has developed a taste for this type of thing. for more on this, let s speak to the director of the press freedom group justice forjournalists, maria ordzhonikidze. thank you forjoining us on the programme this evening. just give me your reaction to this what can only be seen as a worrying development.
Press freedom experts met in Lithuania to discuss Belarus's ongoing crackdown on independent media, which has seen approximately 400 journalists forced into exile and 32 still behind bars.