An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Journalist Ksenia Lutskina served only half of her eight-year prison sentence in Belarus after being convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government. She was pardoned after she kept fainting in her cell from a brain tumor diagnosed during pretrial detention.

“I was literally brought to the penal colony in a wheelchair, and I realized that journalism has really turned into a life-threatening profession in Belarus,” she told The Associated Press in Vilnius, Lithuania, where she lives.

Lutskina was one of dozens of journalists imprisoned in Belarus, where many face beatings, poor medical care and the inability to contact lawyers or relatives, according to activists and former inmates. She compared the prisons to those from the Soviet era.

The group Reporters Without Borders says Belarus is Europe’s leading jailer of journalists. At least 40 are serving long prison sentences, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Lutskina had quit her job making documentaries for Belarus' state broadcaster in 2020 when mass protests broke out after an election — widely denounced as fraudulent — kept authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in power. Trying to set up an alternative TV channel to fact-check government officials, she was arrested that year, put on trial and later convicted.

Other journalists fled the country of 9.5 million and operate from abroad. But many have had to curtail their work after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration cut off foreign aid, a vital source of funding for many independent media.

"Journalists are forced to face not only repressions within the country, but also the sudden withdrawal of U.S. aid, which puts many editorial offices on the brink of survival,” BAJ chair Andrei Bastunets told AP.

Lukashenko's brutal crackdown after the disputed election led to over 65,000 arrests between 2020-25. Thousands told of being beaten by police, opposition figures were jailed or forced into exile, and hundreds of thousands fled abroad in fear.

More than 1,200 people behind bars in the nation of 9.5 million are recognized as political prisoners by Belarus' leading rights group, Viasna. Its founder, Nobel Prize Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski, is among them.

Independent journalists have been swept up too, with outlets closed or outlawed. Lukashenko, in power for over three decades, routinely calls them “enemies of our state,” and vows that those who fled won't be allowed to return.

“The raids, arrests and abuse of journalists have been unceasing for five years, but now they have reached the point of absurdity," Bastunets said, noting that families of journalists are being threatened. Families of some targeted journalists have asked rights groups not to talk publicly about their cases for fear of further reprisal.

Every month brings new arrests and searches, with almost all independent media leaving Belarus. The crackdown even hits those who switch their focus to nonpolitical content.

In December, authorities arrested the entire editorial staff of the popular regional publication Intex-press, which covers local news in the city of Baranavichy. Seven journalists were charged with “assisting extremist activity.”

Extremism is the most common charge used to detain, fine and jail critically minded citizens. Even reading independent media that's been declared extremist can result in short-term arrest. Working with or subscribing to banned media is seen as “assisting extremism,” punishable by up to seven years in prison. Websites of such outlets are blocked.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 397 Belarusian journalists have been victims of what the group deems unjust arrests since 2020, with some detained multiple times.

At least 600 moved abroad, the group said. Even then, many still face pressure from authorities who can open cases against them in absentia, put them on international wanted lists, seize their property inside Belarus and target relatives in raids.

Reporters Without Borders filed a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court in January, accusing Belarusian authorities of “crimes against humanity,” citing torture, beatings, imprisonment, persecution and forced displacement of journalists.

Katsiaryna Bakhvalava, a journalist for Belsat, a Polish-Belarusian independent TV channel, was arrested while covering the 2020 protests. Initially convicted of disrupting public order and sentenced to two years. she was put on trial for treason while in a penal colony and convicted, with her sentence extended to eight years and three months.

Her husband, political analyst Ihar Iliyash, was arrested in October 2024 on charges of “discrediting Belarus” and is jailed while awaiting trial.

Now 31, Bakhvalava, has been placed in a “punishment isolation” cell several times and in 2022 was beaten, according to a former inmate.

Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, a former political prisoner who fled to Lithuania, told reporters she heard that four prison guards had beaten Bakhvalava, who was crying and asking for a doctor.

Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a prominent figure in the Union of Poles in Belarus, was convicted of “harming Belarus’ national security” and sentenced to eight years, which he is serving in the Novopolotsk penal colony.

Poczobut, 52, suffers from a serious heart condition and was placed in solitary confinement several times, sometimes for stretches of up to six months, human rights activists said.

At the end of March, his stay in a punitive cell unit — the harshest form of incarceration — was extended for six months. Attempts by Warsaw to intervene have failed and Poczobut has refused to ask Lukashenko for a pardon.

Also imprisoned is Maryna Zolatava, editor of Tut.By — once the most popular online news outlet in Belarus but shut down by authorities in 2021. Zolatava was convicted in 2023 of incitement and distributing materials urging actions aimed at harming national security, and sentenced to 12 years.

Lukashenko extended his rule for a seventh term in a January election that the opposition called a farce. Since July, he has pardoned over 250 people, seeking to improve ties with the West.

Belarusian analyst Valery Karbalevich said Lukashenko "views political prisoners as a commodity. He is cynically willing to sell journalists and activists to Europe and the United States in exchange for easing economic sanctions and thawing relations. And this process has already begun.”

Shortly after Trump began his second term, Lukashenko released two U.S. citizens and a journalist from the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S. government-funded news outlet. Two more RFE/RL journalists, Ihar Losik and Ihar Karnei, remain imprisoned and were forced to record repentant videos.

Freed journalist Andrey Kuznechyk, who spent three years in prison, left Belarus for Lithuania.

“The first day after my release, I looked at the list of journalists behind bars and I was shocked by how much it had grown during my imprisonment,” he told AP.

Lutskina, the journalist who also fled to Lithuania, brought her 14-year-old son with her, saying he “must learn to distinguish truth from lies.” They both have read George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” which was banned in Belarus, and are finding “surprising parallels” with her homeland.

“Belarus has turned into a gray country under a gray sky, where people are afraid of everything and speak in whispers,” she said.

Lutskina, who is being treated for the tumor that caused her fainting spells, said she actually felt less fear in prison than her fellow Belarusians outside it.

They walk around with their heads down, she said, “afraid to raise their eyes and see the nightmare happening around them,” she added.

FILE - A cameraman works as Belarusian opposition supporters rally in Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE – Belarusian government supporters, seen through a state flag, listen to a speaker at a rally at Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 16, 2020. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Belarusian opposition supporters gather for a protest in front of the government building at Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, with a Soviet-era monument in the foreground, on Aug. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

FILE - Police detain a photojournalist at an opposition rally protesting presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Police carry documents and computers from the office of the Belarusian Association of Journalists as Andrei Bastunets, the head the association, right, looks on in Minsk, Belarus, on Feb. 16, 2021. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Journalist Andrzej Poczobut stands in a defendants' cage in court in Grodno, Belarus, on Jan. 16, 2023. (Leonid Shcheglov/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - Belarusian journalists, from left, Svyatoslav Zorky, Alexey Sudnikov, Andrey Shavlyugo, Nikita Nedoverkov and Maria Eleshevich, pose after their release from a detention center, seen behind them, in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 4, 2020. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - A plainclothes police officer obstructs a photographer working at an opposition rally in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 16, 2009.(AP Photo, File)

FILE - Belarus plainclothes policemen detain political analyst Ihar Iliyash during a rally in Minsk, Belarus, on July 3, 2011. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Belarusian Interior Ministry officer films journalists near the Belsat Channel during a search of the broadcaster’s office in Minsk, Belarus, on March 31, 2017. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Marina Zolatava, editor-in-chief of the Belarusian independent news site Tut.by, sits in court prior to a session in Minsk, Belarus, Feb. 12, 2019. (AP Photo, File)

Andrei Bastunets, head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, is seen in Vilnius, Lithuania, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Ksenia Lutskina, a Belarusian journalist who was imprisoned in Belarus for several years and left the country after her release, poses for a photo in Berlin, Germany, on April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Ksenia Lutskina, a Belarusian journalist who was imprisoned in Belarus for several years and left the country after her release, poses for a photo in Berlin, Germany, on April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Ksenia Lutskina, a Belarusian journalist who was imprisoned in Belarus for several years and left the country after her release, poses for a photo in Berlin, Germany, on April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Harrison Smith's 14th year as a steadying presence and energizing force in the secondary for the Minnesota Vikings has hardly been smooth.

The undisclosed health-related matter that sidelined him during training camp was a major setback to his conditioning, putting him in catch-up mode for most of the first half of the season. The Vikings defense was more vulnerable than usual over those early games, too.

Then with the offense struggling through the developmental process with quarterback J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings stumbled through November to drop to 4-8 and precipitate their elimination from playoff contention.

But lately?

“I’ve been playing football a long time,” Smith said after Minnesota's victory over the Detroit Lions on Christmas Day, “and I have not had fun like that in my whole career.”

Smith received the NFC Defensive Player of the Week award for that performance in his 206th regular-season game, after logging three passes defensed, two tackles for loss, one sack and one interception. He last won that award in 2018.

With career totals of 21½ sacks and 39 interceptions, Smith is just the second player in NFL history to hit those marks, behind Pro Football Hall of Fame member Ronde Barber, who had 28 sacks and 47 interceptions. Smith is also one of four players all time, with Barber, Brian Dawkins and Charles Woodson, to total at least 50 tackles for loss, 100 passes defensed and 200 regular-season games played. Smith (202) also trails only Jim Marshall (270) and Mick Tingelhoff (240) on the team’s all-time list for career starts.

Following the interception against the Lions, Smith was feted on the sideline in a circle of his teammates. He was the recipient of multiple ovations from the U.S. Bank Stadium crowd. Afterward, as Smith tried to sum up what that experience meant to him, his voice cracked several times before he had to pause to compose himself.

“The fans here have never experienced a Super Bowl. They always show up, and for them to keep showing up ... it just shows how much they love the team, how much they love everything that goes into it," Smith said. “We’re out of the playoffs, and everybody shows up in white. They do their part, and one of these days they’ll get it.”

The scene sure felt like a farewell. But so did Smith's emotional postgame remarks after the Vikings were ousted from the playoffs last season.

Could he envision himself returning for a 15th year?

“I can’t speak on that right now. I’m a very much in-the-moment type of guy,” Smith said.

Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell, who has forged a close relationship with the six-time Pro Bowl safety, has made no secret of his desire to keep Smith in place.

Defensive coordinator Brian Flores has turned over some of the play-calling and decision-making to Smith on the field before and after the snap, and an increased emphasis on blitzing in recent weeks has paid plenty of dividends.

"He has an unbelievable feel of the system. He has an unbelievable feel of what ‘Flo’ and the defensive staff really want to do, and he’s out there playing a game within the game,” O’Connell said. “It’s been spectacular to watch. It’s been awesome from my perspective to watch what he’s able to do at this point in his career mentally, and then physically he’s making a lot of plays as well.”

The uncertainty about next season for the defense stretches beyond Smith, with other expensive veterans facing the possibility of being released for cost savings with the Vikings projected to be well over the salary cap approaching the 2026 league year.

Then there's Flores, whose contract will soon expire, making him a free agent. Though his landmark discrimination lawsuit against the NFL that’s still in the court system nearly four years later continues to loom over any interviews he gets for head coach openings, there's also an opening for another club to try to lure him away with a break-the-bank offer for a lateral move.

O'Connell said this week that he doesn't anticipate such a scenario playing out and hopes to have him as long as he can before he's hired again as a head coach.

“I love Minnesota. I love this team. I love working for and with K.O.," said Flores, who was head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 2019-21 and joined the Vikings in 2023. "This place has shown me a lot of love, and I show them right back, and so I don’t know how much more there is to it. From a football standpoint, it fits. There’s always a, let’s call it, business part of this. But the football all lines up. We’ll just see where it all goes.”

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Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) throws under pressure from Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith (22) during the second half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores stands on the sideline before an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)