Exiled Tut.by team slams trial against former colleagues as “surreal”

January 9, BPN. The team of Zerkalo.io, a news website that largely follows in the footsteps of Tut.by, issued a statement on the eve of the trial against their colleagues: editor in chief Maryna Zołatava, CEO Ludmila Čekina, editor Volha Łojka, journalist Alena Tałkačova and lawyer Kaciaryna Tkačenka.

“The whole trial is surreal and represents a final push on the road to an alternative reality where real news is evil,” the statement says.

“Tut.by was, without exaggeration, a great project for our country,” the statement reads. “It did not depend on government money, relied only on itself, while millions of Belarusians started their day with it. It was the place for all of us to read the real news. A place where we could always find out what was really happening in the country.”

Independent media, such as Tut.by, Naša Niva and BelaPAN would be pillars of democracy in the country that most Belarusians want to build, the journalists noted.

However, Alaksandr Łukašenka’s regime has chosen an alternative path, where facts are the main enemy and journalists are on trial, while the state propaganda keeps inciting hatred.

Authorities fabricated the case against Tut.by from the very start because they are afraid of journalists and facts, the Zerkalo.io team said.

“We believe that Tut.by staff should be released in the courtroom,” the statement concluded. “We also know it won’t happen. Because no one can count on a fair trial in modern Belarus anymore.”