Belarusian authorities must cease their raids on independent news outlets and press freedom groups, and refrain from charging or imprisoning journalists over their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week.

Belarusian law enforcement officers raided the Minsk headquarters of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), a local advocacy and trade organization, according to news reports and BAJ Deputy Director Aleh Aheyeu, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Last week, CPJ documented law enforcement raids on at least three news outlets and the arrests of at least seven journalists. Since then, officials have raided the offices of at least four more outlets and harassed more than 20 journalists, according to news reports and information published on BAJ’s website and Telegram channel.

Belarusian authorities have repeatedly cracked down on the press since protests swept the country following Aleksandr Lukashenko’s contested presidential election victory in August, as CPJ has documented. At a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on July 13, Lukashenko said authorities were actively pursuing civil society organizations “and so-called Western media,” according to reports.

“The ruthless raids on independent journalists and advocacy groups in Belarus demonstrate that President Aleksandr Lukashenko is intent on completely stifling critical reporting,” said Robert Mahoney, CPJ’s deputy executive director, in New York. “Belarusian authorities must stop this campaign of repression, immediately release all journalists in custody, and cease harassing members of the press.”

None of BAJ’s staff have returned to the premises for fear of possible arrest, he said, and authorities have not disclosed any information or reason for the raid. Aheyeu said he did not know if police had seized anything from the office.

Aheyeu added that no representatives from BAJ or the company that owns the building were present during the search, as required by law, and that the association intended to file a complaint to the Belarusian Investigative Committee.

Authorities raided at least 15 other civil society organizations in one day, including the Belarusian PEN center, the local branch of the international free expression organization, according to news reports.

Police previously raided BAJ’s headquarters in February as part of an investigation into alleged violations of public order, as CPJ documented at the time, and Aheyeu said that it was likely that yesterday’s search was part of a similar investigation.

Those convicted of violating order can face up to three years in prison under the Belarusian criminal code. It remains unclear if any of the association’s staff face charges under this article, he said.

Aheyeu described the raid of BAJ’s headquarters as “senseless,” since the authorities already have access to virtually the entirety of the association’s records following the February raid and a June demand from the Justice Ministry to hand over thousands of documents dating back to 2018 for auditing.

Aheyeu told CPJ that the Justice Ministry informed BAJ that it had been issued with a “warning” as a result of the audit, and that two warnings within the space of a year could lead to the cancellation of the organization’s registration.

Separately, authorities extended the detention of 15 employees of the independent news website Tut.by, according to reports. Police in Minsk arrested more than a dozen Tut.by staff members in May, in an investigation into alleged tax evasion by the outlet, as CPJ documented at the time.