{"id":523404,"date":"2026-03-06T11:57:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=523404"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:27:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:27:51","slug":"committee-to-protect-journalists-calls-for-immediate-release-of-musician-and-radio-host-aleh-khamenka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/committee-to-protect-journalists-calls-for-immediate-release-of-musician-and-radio-host-aleh-khamenka","title":{"rendered":"Committee To Protect Journalists Calls For Immediate Release Of Musician And Radio Host Aleh Khamenka"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release radio host Aleh Khamenka<\/b> and stop prosecuting journalists for their professional activities. The organization published<\/a> the statement on March 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three-year prison sentence for Aleh Khamenka is the third sentence handed down to journalists in Belarus in less than a week \u2014 a clear sign that the authorities have in no way eased pressure on the press in the country,\u201d<\/i> said Anna Brakha<\/b>, CPJ\u2019s senior researcher for Europe and Central Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe authorities should immediately release Khamenka along with all imprisoned journalists,\u201d<\/i> she said.<\/p>\n

CPJ sent an email to the Investigative Committee of Belarus requesting comment on Khamenka\u2019s case but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n

On March 4 the Minsk City Court sentenced Khamenka to three years in prison and a fine of 20,000 rubles on charges of assisting \u201cextremist activity.\u201d According to the case materials, the charges were based on his ongoing cooperation with the editorial office of Belarusian Radio Racyja.<\/p>\n

Aleh Khamenka was detained in Minsk on June 17, 2025, after a search of his apartment. He was initially placed in a temporary detention facility on Akrestsina under an administrative charge. In early July it became known that a criminal case had been opened, after which he was transferred to Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Kaliadzichy.<\/p>\n

Khamenka is known as a promoter of Belarusian music on the radio. In the 2000s he created and hosted the program \u201cBrama Isnasts\u0456\u201d on Avtoradio, and since the late 2000s he had been cooperating on a regular basis with Belarusian Radio Racyja. His programs \u201cTuzin Hitou\u201d and \u201cFolk-Brama\u201d were broadcast for many years until his detention.<\/p>\n

Belarusian Radio Racyja is a radio station broadcasting around the clock in the Belarusian language across Belarus, Poland and Lithuania on FM frequencies and on the internet. The editorial office has operated since 1999 and is based in Bia\u0142ystok. The station covers social, political, economic and cultural events in Belarus and around the world.<\/p>\n

In September 2021 access to the station\u2019s website for users in Belarus was blocked by a decision of the Ministry of Information. On January 16, 2024, the KGB designated Belarusian Radio Racyja as an extremist formation.<\/p>\n

At present, at least 26 journalists remain behind bars in Belarus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release radio host Aleh Khamenka and stop prosecuting journalists for their professional activities. The organization published the statement on March 5. \u201cThe three-year prison sentence for Aleh Khamenka is the third sentence handed down to journalists in Belarus in less than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":522851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69aa9e1d84cae.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Committee To Protect Journalists Calls For Immediate Release Of Musician And Radio Host Aleh Khamenka"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143090],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-politics"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}