Opinion: The shocking detention of a journalist in flight - CNN - 0 views
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The arrest of Belarusian journalist and activist Roman Protasevich on Sunday should not have come as a surprise to anyone following events in the former Soviet republic.
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Europe's last dictator, Aleksander Lukashenko, has long been an enemy of independent media. Last year, he stepped up censorship after claiming victory in the contested presidential election of August 9 -- a claim widely seen as fraudulent and which set off a wave of giant protests.
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Protasevich was the co-founder of NEXTA, one of the most popular channels on the Telegram messaging app and a leading source of information on the anti-Lukashenko protests.
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Protasevich's detention came soon after the May 18 raid and shutdown of another major online media outlet, Tut.by. and detentions of at least 10 of its staff, including three journalists
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Sviatlana Tikhanouvskaya, a Belarusian opposition leader and a 2020 presidential candidate, said in a tweet that Protasevich faced the death penalty.
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Belarusian authorities raided the studios of another prominent media outlet -- Belsat, a Poland-based satellite broadcaster, which has also been reporting on anti-Lukashenko protests.
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Now, Pratasevich's life could be in danger and the survival of independent media as a whole is at stake. Many journalists who are not in jail fled Belarus and are trying to find ways and funding to continue journalism from abroad.
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Belarus has strong political, economic and security ties with Russia, and some observers believe Russia's FSB helped Belarus' KGB in the operation to arrest Pratasevich.
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Providing support to in-country and exiled media outlets, journalists, press freedom and human rights organizations is the only way to guarantee we can continue to receive objective information about media crackdowns and human rights violations in Belarus.