European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Poczobut was found guilty of allegedly encouraging actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus and inciting ethnic hostility. Arrested in March 2021, he refused to sign a petition asking Lukashenka for a pardon.

Alexander Nevzorov, branded a ‘foreign agent’ last year, was convicted in absentia in February for allegedly spreading “false information” about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

In 2022, several journalists reporting on climate actions or covering related events were prevented from doing their work, insulted, or physically assaulted. One journalist in central Serbia received death threats.

In Spain, two journalists were arrested while filming an action by Futuro Vegetal activists at the Prado Museum in Madrid; in the UK, three journalists were arrested while covering Just Stop Oil protests on the M25 motorway in Hertfordshire.

The Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism has recorded 26 impunity alerts involving 40 journalists: 14 in Kosovo, 6 in Russia, 6 in Ukraine, 6 in Turkey, 2 in Azerbaijan, 1 in Malta, 1 in the UK, 1 in Cyprus, 1 in Slovakia, 1 in Serbia, and 1 in Montenegro.

“The use of SLAPPs is widespread in Italy. The legal tool most commonly employed to instigate SLAPP cases is defamation, both civil and criminal. However, the right to privacy and the right to be forgotten are also misused to prevent the disclosure of inconvenient information.”

The KGB accused Ivashyn of cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence after he investigated the Belarusian police’s recruitment of former Ukrainian riot officers. Ivashyn was charged with “treason” and “interference in the activities of an employee of internal affairs”.

Bauluze is one of many journalists, photographers, and activists who have been fined under the 2015 law for alleged behaviour that endangers the work of law enforcement authorities.