Dzmitry Semchanka

Affiliated media: TV channel ONT, Journalist, Former employee

Incident date: March 23, 2023

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Minsk

Additional information:

Former journalist of the TV channel ONT and informal head of the «presidential pool» Dzmitry Semchanka was sentenced to 3 years of jail. Judge of the Minsk City Court found him guilty of «inciting hatred» (Part 1 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code). The Prosecutor General’s Office regarded the journalist’s messages on social networks after his dismissal from state television in 2020 as a sign of disagreement with the violence of security forces against protesters. «When I saw how the Belarusian people were being destroyed — I realised that I could never keep silent about it again. Otherwise, I’ll be a living corpse! My Belarus and the people who live here are the highest value for me. How can I talk on the screen about drug addicts and the unemployed wandering in the street, or film about the harvesting, when our girls are raped in detention centres, their ovaries and uteruses are torn, depriving them of the opportunity to become mothers», — wrote Semchanka.