Reporters Without Borders files lawsuit against Lukashenko at the International Criminal Court over persecution of journalists

The international organization «Reporters Without Borders» (RSF) has filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the self-proclaimed president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on charges of crimes against humanity. The lawsuit was initiated in connection with Lukashenko's nomination for a seventh presidential term amid repression against journalists in the country.

As RSF noted in a statement, with the presidential election on January 26 approaching, Belarus's propaganda state media is portraying independent journalists and media outlets as “extremists,” echoing the logic of repressive laws introduced by the Lukashenko regime.

In particular, from January 15 to 17, the state-run ONT channel broadcast a propaganda film featuring three politically imprisoned journalists from Radio Liberty: Igor Karniy, Igor Losik, and Andriy Kuznechyk. As RSF noted, their intimidation and use of editing gave the impression that the media workers publicly expressed regret for their work.

Since his so-called re-election in August 2020, Alexander Lukashenko has organized a large-scale systematic campaign of persecution of journalists with the aim of completely eradicating them. In its complaint, RSF provided the ICC prosecutor with detailed evidence and statistics, recorded jointly with the Belarusian Association of Journalists, that illustrate the scale of these crimes and demonstrate the systematic and state-directed nature of the attack on media workers.

Indeed, since August 2020, there have been 589 arbitrary arrests against 397 media workers (some arrested multiple times). 43 journalists remain in prison. Between 500 and 600 Belarusian journalists were forced to leave. About 200 Belarusian journalists found refuge in Lithuania, and about 300 more in Poland.

As of December 2024, Belarus has the fourth highest number of imprisoned journalists in the world, after China, Myanmar, and Israel.