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Independent TV journalists arrested in Minsk

Independent TV journalists Volha Chaychyts and Tatsyana Belashova were arrested in Minsk on June 1.

The camera-wielding reporters were apprehended in Gorky Park, a downtown place popular with children where they were making a report on the occasion of International Children's Day.

The women managed to tell colleagues that they were being taken to the Partyzanski district police department.

In late March, Ms. Chaychyts, a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, was formally warned by the Minsk City Prosecutor's Office against continuing work for Belsat TV, a Polish-based channel that targets audiences in Belarus. The reporter was told that working for a foreign media outlet that had no accreditation in Belarus was illegal.

Last month, Belsat TV representatives said that the Prosecutor General's Office was examining its activity in Belarus.

Belsat TV reporter Mikhas Yanchuk linked the probe to the channel’s plans to apply again for accreditation with the Belarusian authorities. “They may already be looking for formal grounds to reject [the application],” he predicted.

Belsat applied for accreditation in 2009 and 2010 and had the application rejected on both occasions. //BelaPAN