As part of another «deal» with US President Trump, Alexander Lukashenko released twelve imprisoned journalists who will now live in Vilnius, while their families will remain in Belarus. At the same time, another journalist, Kiril Poznyak, was detained in the country, accused of involvement in a new «extremist formation» — the YouTube channel «Platform 375», where several debates took place between pro-government propagandists and their opponents who left Belarus in 2021–2022. The decision to recognize the channel, which has 4.05 thousand subscribers and 3.41 million views, was made by the Belarusian State Security Committee, although the last broadcast was three years ago. Now journalists considered by the security forces to be involved with the channel are being detained under «extremist» articles.
In Georgia, journalists who dared to cover protests were again attacked this week, Hungarian journalist Laszlo Mezes was hospitalized with a broken finger and facial injuries, his phone was forcibly taken, and a total of five journalists were injured, while the police remained inactive. Moreover, the speaker of the Georgian parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, accused Netgazeti of «organizing violence» for publishing news about planned protests at the «Georgian Dream» party's election headquarters.
Just last week in Russia, Elena Solovyova**, a freelancer for «Novaya Gazeta», 7X7**, and «Sever.Realii»***, was put on the wanted list for «failure to fulfill the obligations of a foreign agent in providing reports». «Agency»** journalist Andrey Zatirko was arrested in absentia.
Investigative journalist and writer Irina Borogan and blogger Sergey Kuropov were declared «foreign agents», Lithuanian freelancer Eldoradas Butrimas, previously listed by Russian authorities in the «terrorists and extremists» registry, is now wanted by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Journalist Nika Novak, serving a four-year term for «collaboration with a foreign organization» in a Siberian colony, was deprived of the right to correspondence.
According to JFJ, Ukrainian journalists faced obstacles in their work not only from drones but also from the local authorities of the country.
The apartment of Yulia Boyko, belonging to the national TV channel «We — Ukraine», was damaged during a drone strike on Kyiv. Ukraїner Po Polsku producer Natalia Panchenko reported that she became the target of disinformation and deepfakes, in which offensive and threatening statements were made on her behalf.
The editor-in-chief of the «Kremenchug Newspaper» Oleg Bulashev received threats in response to his question in an interview with the mayor of Kremenchug when attending a meeting of the city's executive committee.
The JFJ Foundation, organized in 2018, monitors, analyzes, and covers attacks on media workers in 12 post-Soviet states, including Russia. The monitoring is based on data collected through content analysis of open sources. In April 2025, the foundation was recognized as an «undesirable» organization in Russia.
* Recognized as an «undesirable» organization in Russia.
** Recognized as «foreign agents» in Russia.
*** Recognized as a «foreign agent» and «undesirable» organization in Russia.