Outrage sparked after a Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Belarus this week, so that authorities could arrested an opposition activist on board.
The orders to arrest journalist, Roman Protasevich, came directly from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.US and EU officials have condemned the actions calling it “outrageous and illegal behavior” and some are even calling it “unprecedented”.
The government’s attack on the media in Belarus is disgraceful.
However, some of the very same figures who are now outraged at Belarus are conveniently forgetting their own actions just eight years ago when the US and EU conspired to ground a plane carrying the President of Bolivia in order to conduct a search for Edward Snowden.
I’d like their pro “freedom of the press” narrative more if it were actually sincere, but while Julian Assange is still behind bars, it’s hard to believe that the Biden administration and US pundits have suddenly embraced dissident journalists and information freedom.
Edited by Lee Rennie
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#freespeech #surveillance #Snowden #belarus #freeRomanProtasevich
That piece flowed like a river,
so well composed