Belarus culture workers need our support after detention of Tatsiana Hatsura-Yavorskaya | Mark Cousins

The arrest of Watch Docs festival director Hatsura-Yavorskaya is a reminder of how much culture matters in authoritarian states

The arrest in Belarus of the director of Minsk's Watch Docs festival of nonfiction cinema is a reminder of how much culture workers matter in authoritarian states and at times of information deficit.

On 5 April Tatsiana Hatsura-Yavorskaya's home was searched by security forces, phones and computers were confiscated, and she was arrested. The ostensible reason was that she had co-organised (with Natalia Trenina and Yulya Semenchenko, who were also arrested but since released) an exhibition called The Machine Is Breathing, I Am Not about Belarus health professionals at the time of Covid-19.