Pratasevich renounced his years of critical journalism that was circulated on the Telegram channel NEXTA, as CPJ documented. Modern evidence-based trials should have obliterated the cruel practice, but authoritarian governments have found other uses for it, like humiliating and intimidating reporters who might write about the truth – as the world witnessed on May 24 with the first of several televised “confessions” by Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich. At the Salem witch trials, the accused could escape punishment by uttering a confession. Obtaining a confession, by any means, for centuries was often a key part of achieving a conviction and meting out punishment. ![]() This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 15 June 2021.įorced confessions – sometimes tied to public humiliation – have a long and inglorious history, and were a fundamental component of ancient judicial systems in the East and West. ![]() People taking part in a March of Solidarity with Belarus call for Raman Pratasevich’s release, in Krakow, Poland,, Beata Zawrzel/NurPhotoįorced public confessions are in widespread use against journalists, human rights advocates, and opposition figures in China, Iran, and Russia, and in Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists. British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom). ![]()
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