Media Freedom Coalition demands that charges against arrested journalist be dropped

December 23, BPN. The Media Freedom Coalition demanded that all charges against former Belarusian journalist Łarysa Ščyrakova be dropped and that she be released.

Ščyrakova should be allowed to reunite with her son and exercise the right to freedom of expression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, a coalition member, said in a statement.

The statement was backed by the Canadian human rights office.

Previously, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s media freedom representative Teresa Ribeiro called on the Belarusian authorities to release the dissident.

The state accused Ščyrakova, a former journalist based in Homiel, of discrediting Belarus, her family told BPN. She may face up to four years in prison, if convicted.

Police arrested Ščyrakova on December 6 and took her 15-year-old son Sviatasłaŭ to the Homiel district social service center. She had stopped working as journalist in 2021, and was into ethnographic photography in the last few months before her arrest.

Belarus has dozens of imprisoned reporters, says the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

The Media Freedom Coalition was formed in 2019. It unties over 50 states.