Devastating news from Minsk: the Belarusian foreign ministry has stripped dozens of locals journalists working for foreign media of their press accreditation, affecting the entire bureaus of Reuters, AP, AFP, Deutsche Welle. 1/2

This basically means that they could be arrested and charged if they’re caught on the streets reporting. Hard to process the impact this decision will have. 2/2

Belarusian MFA credentials were a rare thing for journalists to rely on to keep them safe. All bets are off now.

My journalist friends got a call from the MFA this morning informing them of the decision. Everyone is shell-shocked, not knowing how to keep on working, thinking about moving abroad for a while at least.