Anton Surapin, left, is a 20-year-old freelance photographer and a student at the Belarusian State University’s Institute of Journalism. He was the first to post photos of the teddy bears online on his blog, Index on Censorship informs.

Journalist held for alleged complicity in an illegal border crossing
Surapin said he had received the photos in a 5 July email from an unidentified person who wrote: “At 8 a.m. I went outside and saw the plane flying. He was flying very low, and I even saw the person flying it. I waved to him, and he threw me three bears with flags on parachutes!”

The young journalist was arrested during a raid on his home on 13 July by members of the State Security Committee (KGB) investigating his role in a publicity stunt by a Swedish advertising agency Studio Total on 4 July. On 17 July his detention was extended for 10 days.

The KGB is holding Anton Surapin for alleged complicity in an illegal border crossing. He could be sentenced to seven years in prison if convicted.

Anton’s mother, Alena Surapina, told Radio Video grabFree Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Belarus Service that Surapin did not take the photographs that he posted and was not anywhere near the place where the teddy bears were alleged to have been dropped.

​​“It is complete stupidity. He wasn’t at any time anywhere near where all this happened. It is just comical. The lawyer says they are working on the case under that article. He says that he doesn’t see his guilt”, Surapina says.

First arrested for photos of teddy bears
Thousands of people post pictures of teddy bears on the Internet daily, yet only Surapin has found himself locked away in a Belarusian KGB prison for doing so. Not for the first time, the authorities in Belarus have found someone to blame for something they say hasn’t happened. And not for the first time, the someone they have blamed is a journalist.

The whole story began when the Swedish public-relations firm Studio Total said it dropped 879 teddy bears carrying political slogans over the Belarusian town of Ivyanets, near the Lithuanian border, and outskirts of Minsk on 4 July.

The bears carried miniature posters demanding freedom of expression in the country, including “We demand protection of human rights in Belarus!”, “We can’t be made silent!” and “Free speech now!”.

Studio Total said it was upset by the international media’s neglect of press freedom violations in Belarus and had decided to call attention to the issue. The group purchased a small plane and two Studio Total members illegally flew to Belarus from neighbouring Lithuania.

Defence Ministry denies the flight
The Belarusian Defence Ministry dismissed as “a hoax” several short, edited video clips previously released by Sweden’s Studio Total.

IVideo grabn response to that denial, as well as scepticism expressed by state-controlled media in Belarus, Studio Total provided RFE/RL with nearly 90 minutes of unedited footage documenting the 4 July flight.

Belarusian authorities denied it ever took place and said no foreign planes had illegally crossed the border on 4  July. The defence ministry told Interfax, the Russian news agency, that its experts had analysed the photos and videos and concluded they were fabricated and that the information about the stunt was false and a provocation

The ministry claims that the videos were clearly doctored or subjected to some other form of manipulation of “a clearly provocative nature”. RFE/RL consulted cinematographers to confirm that the video was not doctored with digital editing.

Organizers: we don’t know Anton Surapin
Tomas Mazetti, one of the plane’s two pilots, told the Swedish English-language newspaper The Local he was worried by Surapin’s arrest. Reached by Reporters Without Borders, Mazetti said: “We don’t know Anton Surapin. We have no connection with him whatsoever. We had no contact at all in Belarus to help us organise this. We didn’t need to”.

“We call on authorities to immediately release Surapin and drop these senseless criminal charges against him”, told Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova.

Free-speech activists are rallying to Surapin’s cause. Information on his plight is scarce, but there are worries that he will be charged with national-security-related crimes that carry a sentence of three to seven years. Several supporters have reproduced the teddy-bear pictures on their own blogs and websites, and campaigners have produced T-shirts with the slogan “No pictures – no problems?”.

Mazetti said “Teddybear Airdrop Minsk 2012” was aimed at supporting pro-democracy opposition groups like Charter 97 and “Tell The Truth!” which are fighting for free speech in Belarus.

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