Protect U.S.-Affiliated Journalists at Risk

Belarus Freedom Forum applauds the letters by Free Belarus Caucus members U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on State Department & USAID Management, urging the Trump Administration to prevent the forced repatriation of vulnerable media personnel and to secure the release of U.S.-affiliated journalists jailed abroad.

Senators praise the Administration’s leadership in securing the release of RFE/RL Belarus Service journalist Andrei Kuznechyk in February and call attention to still imprisoned U.S. supported journalists, including Ihar Losik, a journalist for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service who was unjustly sentenced to fifteen years in prison and has previously gone on hunger strike, and others jailed in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Myanmar, Iran, Vietnam, and Russia.