Media personnel have been significantly targeted by Belarusian authorities. The "European Parliament Platform on the fight against impunity in Belarus" (initiative launched by the Subcommittee on Human Rights, Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Delegation for Relations with Belarus and the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly) host in the European Parliament in Brussels a meeting specifically on the human rights situation of media in Belarus. During the meeting diverse speakers explain the situation on the ground : Stanislav IVASHKEVICH , independent journalist and head of investigations at Belsat TV, Natalia BELIKOVA representative of the 'Belarus in Focus Information Office', Adam MICHNIK, editor-in-chief at Gazeta Wyborcza. The Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights Maria ARENA (S&D, BE) and the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Belarus, Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT) make a statement on the situation.

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Brussels

statement

Subcommittee on Human Rights

EU - Belarus (T)

ARENA, Maria (S&D, BE)

AUŠTREVIČIUS, Petras (Renew, LT)

The situation of journalists in Belarus: extracts of the meeting and statement by Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew, LT) and by Maria ARENA (S&D, BE) - Platform against impunity on Belarus

SOUNDBITE (English), Stanislav IVASHKEVICH , Independent journalist and head of investigations at Belsat TV, I was detained once in August. There were taking out to the courtyard for a beating. A second time in December, they started using those suffocation practises in the prison van. The police put of about two cubic metres, put five men and let them there for about ten hours, with only small holes for air.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stanislav IVASHKEVICH, Independent journalist and head of investigations at Belsat TV, So what is happening with their businesses of these individuals on this sanctions list? Practically nothing, almost nothing. What they do is they have transferred their assets to family members, employees or shell companies registered primarily in Arab Emirates and sanctions don't apply to them anymore. And as my sources tell me, the main problem is that the EU doesn't have a body that proactively tracks these changes and ownership in real time to update the sanctions list. So the US has the EU doesn't have.

SOUNDBITE (English), Natalia BELIKOVA , Representative of the &apos;Belarus in Focus Information Office&apos;, Since last August, independent media workers have been systematically detained and subjected to searches, fines, physical violence, torture. 29 media workers are currently in jail. 3 have already been convicted. More than a 100 media workers have been forced to flee Belarus under the threat of persecution.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Adam MICHNIK   , Editor-in-Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza, I'd like to draw your attention to a journalist Andrzej POCZOBUT who has been imprisoned. He's an excellent journalist, he works for Gazeta Wiborcza Daily that I work for. But he's also an activist of the Association of Poles in Belarus. He was arrested under stupid, unbelievable, absurd accusations and he refused to leave Belarus. He sacrificed his freedom, but he wanted to stay in Belarus because he's a citizen of that country and he has the right to be there, to reside there and he wants to benefit from this right.

SOUNDBITE (French), Maria ARENA (S&amp;D, BE), The first thing we have to do is giving voice to these journalists, so being next to these journalists who are being persecuted today. They have no space today to speak and welcoming them here and giving them a voice in the sub-committee on Human Rights is something extremely important. The second thing is that we are working collecting information for the fight against impunity, because what is important to do is to identify the perpetrators of this violence, of the torture in prisons, of the unspeakable conditions of the journalists &lsquo;confinement and to be able to prosecute them when required. It is also important to give the possibility of gathering as much information as possible and to help Belarusian civil society to survive a regime which is extremely hard.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AU&#352;TREVI&#268;IUS (Renew, LT), We have to keep this issue on and speak to the EU institutions, to Europeans, explaining this situation, because Europeans as well they have to understand what is going on in close neighbourhood of the European Union. It's not far away. I mean, Belarus has more than a thousand kilometres long border. So this is a part of the European continent. So that's why we can't be deaf and blind on all violations of what Lukashenko wants to continue doing in Belarus. So that's why we have to speak politically and economically by sanctions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petras AU&#352;TREVI&#268;IUS (Renew, LT), We are committed to continue our platform "fight against impunity in Belarus". So we will have another meeting in early September, already having a meeting with maybe lawyers and other professionals in order to understand the scale of relations and understand what actions should be taken against this regime.