KYIV – Two Belarusian journalists working for the Polish television station Belsat were tried on Tuesday in the capital Minsk on charges of covering mass protests in 2020, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said.
Yekaterina Andreeva and Darya Chultsova, a reporter and chambermaid for Belsat, were arrested in November after a demonstration.
Protests took place in Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko won the victory over opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in the August elections. The opposition said the result was rigged.
Prosecutors accused Andreeva and Chultsova of coordinating the protests by broadcasting the reports live. They denied the charges, for which they could be sentenced to three years in prison. They appeared in court inside a cage.
International human rights organizations have condemned the detention of Andreeva and Chultsova.
The New York Committee for the Protection of Journalists has called on the Belarussian authorities to drop “absurd” allegations against Andreieva and Chultsova and to release them unconditionally.
“The Belarussian government must stop punishing journalists for reporting on important political events and allow them to work freely and without fear of reprisals,” it said in a statement on Monday.
Thousands of protesters were rounded up and almost all opposition political figures were taken into exile or imprisoned while the government was repressed.