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Belarus deports Swedish journalist after crackdown on media

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Belarusian authorities deported a Swedish photojournalist and arrested more than 50 other Western reporters ahead of a new wave of protests planned for this weekend against the country’s embattled president, Alexander Lukashenko, the Guardian reported.  

Paul Hansen, a photojournalist for the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, was ordered to leave the country within 24 hours and expelled from Belarus for five years, the British daily reported. On Friday, Hansen tweeted that he would “be leaving #Belarus … But I will return and continue to try and tell the people’s story.”

Hansen was one of dozens of reporters from major media organizations, including Reuters, the BBC, Associated Press, Deutsche Welle and Agence France-Presse, who were detained on Thursday evening by Belarusian riot police on the pretext that their documents needed to be checked. On Thursday, Deutsche Welle confirmed that their reporter Alexandra Boguslavskaya was detained by Minsk police “for document checks” on Thursday and “was subsequently released after several hours in custody.”

The crackdown on journalists took place in the wake of mass protests against the re-election of Lukashenko following an election on August 9 that have been violently suppressed by security forces. Further protests are planned for this weekend, including a “grand solidarity” march by women on Saturday.

Earlier this month, EU leaders condemned the disputed election and agreed to impose sanctions on a number of people responsible for violence against protesters and election fraud. According to officials, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell plans to propose targeted sanctions against 15 to 17 people involved in the Belarusian election fraud.

Another detained journalist was the BBC’s Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, who tweeted on Thursday that he and other colleagues were detained by police in the center of Minsk and “held at a police station for two hours for ‘document checks’ …  A clear attempt to interfere with coverage of events in #Belarus.”

Most of the journalists were later freed from custody but the Guardian reported that four correspondents based in the Belarusian capital were detained overnight and appeared in court on Friday, “charged with organizing illegal protests.”

The U.K.’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, condemned the media crackdown on Friday night and called on the Belarusian authorities to “stop targeting journalists” and “defend media freedom.”

“I condemn the mass detention of over 50 journalists last night in Belarus, including from BBC, local & international media,” Raab tweeted.  “This was a blatant attempt to interfere with objective & honest reporting.”

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